The CBI on 9th December had arrested former IAF chief Air Chief Marshal S.P.Tyagi and two others for alleged corruption in the ₹3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP choppers deal.
Earlier too, Tyagi was questioned by the CBI extensively in the past in this case. The Enforcement Directorate had, in April this year, summoned Tyagi in connection with its money-laundering probe in the ₹3,600 crore.
Along with Tyagi, his cousin Sanjiv alias Julie Tyagi and lawyer Gautam Khaitan were also arrested.
All the 3 have been arrested on the allegations of accepting illegal gratification for exercising influence through corrupt and or illegal means.
This is for the first time a former IAF chief has been arrested by the central probe agency. CBI had also got issued letters rogatory (judicial requests) to multiple countries to gather more leads and evidence in this case.
On 1 January 2014, India had scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica’s British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over an alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of paying kickbacks of ₹423 crore by it for securing the deal.
The allegation against the former Air chief is that he allegedly reduced the height of the VVIP helicopters so that AgustaWestland could be included in the bids.
ED is probing the case in which 70 million euros (about ₹360 crore) were allegedly paid as kickbacks.
