L A T E S T      N E W S

Chopper deal: CBI questions Tyagi’s cousins

NEW DELHI: CBI on Wednesday started questioning cousins of former Air Chief S.P. Tyagi in connection with its ongoing probe into alleged kickbacks in the Rs 3,600-crore VVIP helicopter deal.

CBI sources said Julie and Docsa Tyagi have been quizzed on their alleged association with European middlemen Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschkhe who have been accused by the Italian investigators for payment of illegal gratification to swing the deal in favour of AgustaWestland.

The sources said agency has already questioned executives of Indian arms of Aeromatrix and IDS Infotech — companies through which alleged bribe was routed from Mauritius and Tunisia in the garb of payments for engineering contracts.

In his probe report, the Italian prosecutor had said that Gerosa and Haschkhe had close contacts with former Air Chief’s family, particularly his three cousins — Julie, Docsa and Sandeep.

It had claimed that Haschkhe and Gerosa, through the Tyagi brothers, managed to change the tender details, modifying the ‘operational ceiling’ from 18,000 feet to 15,000 feet altitude, thus making AgustaWestland eligible to take part in the tender process.

The report also said that the duo managed to introduce a comparative flight trial with non-functional engine, thus facilitating AgustaWestland helicopters, the only ones which had three engines, swinging the deal in its favour.

The CEOs of the two Italian companies, arrested by local authorities, also paid the middlemen through a consultancy contract between AgustaWestland and Gordian Services Sarl an amount of 400,000 Euros (about Rs 2.8 crore) of which 100,000 Euros (Rs 72 lakh) were paid cash to the Tyagi brothers (Julie, Docsa and Sandeep), the report said.

The former Air Chief and his three cousins have denied the allegations. — PTI

Venezeulan Prez Hugo Chavez dies of cancer

Caracas: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez lost his battle with cancer today, silencing the leading voice of the Latin American left and plunging his divided oil-rich nation into an uncertain future.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro, who struggled to hold back tears as he announced Chavez's death, said the government had deployed the armed forces and police "to accompany and protect our people and guarantee the peace." Chavez had named Maduro as his heir, but the Venezuelan opposition is sure to press for fresh elections and tensions have been mounting over government allegations that its domestic rivals are in league with its foreign foes.

Shortly before Chavez's death was announced, Maduro and other top officials had accused Venezuela's enemies of somehow giving the 58-year-old leftist the cancer that eventually killed him, and two US military attaches were expelled.

Under the constitution, elections must be held within 30 days and National Assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello must take over on an interim basis, but Chavez had urged Venezuelans to vote for Maduro if he was unable to return.

Soldiers brought the Venezuelan flag down to half-staff at the Caracas military hospital, where senior figures in Chavez's 14-year-old administration gathered before the cameras of state television to break the news.

"We have received the toughest and tragic information that... comandante President Hugo Chavez died today at 4:25 pm (Tuesday)," Maduro said.

DSP's murder: UP govt trying to shield
Raja Bhaiya, says Mayawati

NEW DELHI: Stepping up her attack on arch-rival SP, BSP supremo Mayawati on Wednesday accused the Uttar Pradesh government of trying to shield former state minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh in the case of murder of a police officer.

Mayawati, a former Chief Minister of the state, said Singh, alias Raja Bhaiya, moving around scot free would weaken the case of the killing of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) in Pratapgarh district.

DSP Zia-ul-Haq was killed by a mob in Pratapgarh on Saturday when he had rushed there after a village head was shot dead over a land dispute. The slain officer's wife had accused Raja Bhaiya for the attack.

"The SP government was trying to shield the former minister. Otherwise, he (Raja Bhaiya) would have been arrested by now. Till date he has not been arrested," Mayawati told reporters in New Delhi.

She said the protests by Muslim students at Aligarh University and Allahabad University were valid as an FIR has been filed against the former minister but he has not been arrested yet.

On her demand for imposition of President's rule in UP, Mayawati said it was up to the Centre to take a decision.

Meanwhile, SP member Naresh Agarwal said the party had no objection to the conduct of a second postmortem of the slain DSP.

"The post-mortem was conducted in the presence of TV cameras. We have no objection to conducting post-mortem again," he said when asked about the demand of the police officers wife for a second autopsy in the case.

Agarwal said UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has already recommended a CBI probe into the incident. — PTI

Army orders probe into Baramulla firing

Srinagar: The Army has ordered a time-bound Court of Inquiry (CoI) into the firing incident in Baramulla district of Kashmir in which a youth was killed.

Lt Gen K T Parnaik, GoC-in-C has "ordered a time-bound CoI into the incident" in which Tahir Latief Sofi was killed, Udhampur-based Army spokesperson said.

An Army spokesman in a statement here said a foot patrol unit of the Army was attacked by a mob, creating a life-threatening situation for the personnel.

He said the personnel fired in the air which could not have caused death of the youth or injury to anyone.

The spokesman said there were intelligence inputs with regard to the plans by terrorists to entangle Army personnel, particularly in Baramulla, in a protest and to attack the Army taking shield of the crowd with a view to trigger large-scale violence.

"This needs to be probed in detail by police," the spokesperson said.

"The aggressive mob, despite repeated warnings and caution, surrounded the patrol and people from within the crowd started attacking the Army personnel. The Army patrol was soon outnumbered, some of them were injured," the statement said.

The statement said the death of the youth "could not have been caused due to the firing by the Army personnel as extreme caution was exercised by them and the fire was deliberately aimed in the air".

ED grills Preity Zinta over IPL-2 

Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday questioned Bollywood actress Preity Zinta in connection with her investments in the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kings XI Punjab.

The officials questioned Preity, co-owner of Kings XI Punjab, in connection with the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the second season of the Indian Premier League. Preity was questioned for over six hours during which she was asked to explain her source of funds.

Kings XI Punjab is owned by a group of members which include industrialists Mohit Burman, Karan Paul, Ness Wadia, and actress Preity Zinta, among others.

"She complied with the summons issued to her by us", said an ED official.

Preity (38) appeared before the ED authorities at 10am and her statement was recorded for over ten hours, he said without elaborating.

Former BCCI president Shashank Manohar, cricketer Ravi Shastri, who were on the IPL governing council, besides actor and Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner Shah Rukh Khan, had earlier been questioned in connection with alleged irregularities in conduct of IPL-2 held in South Africa.

The ED is trying to ascertain the source of money and investigating if there was any money laundering by any of the franchises during the second edition of IPL which was shifted from India.