M A I N   N E W S

Copter deal
CBI books IAF ex-chief Tyagi, 12 others
Raids at 14 places, including Chandigarh, Mohali & Gurgaon
Syed Ali Ahmed/TNS

Tyagi’s ‘role’ SP Tyagi (in pic), who has denied charges against him, is the first Air Chief to be named in a corruption or criminal case by the CBI Tyagi’s role was to approve the reduction in the service ceiling for VVIP helicopters, claims CBI It alleged that the reduction of service ceiling — maximum height at which a helicopter can perform normally — allowed UK-based AgustaWestland to come into the fray

New Delhi, March 13
Former IAF chief Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi was today booked by the CBI along with 12 others for alleged cheating, corruption and criminal conspiracy in the multicrore VVIP helicopter deal. The probe agency also carried out searches at 14 locations, including his residence.

Tyagi, his three cousins - Sanjeev Tyagi alias Juli Tyagi, Rajeev Tyagi alias Docsa Tyagi and Sandeep Tyagi - European middlemen Carlo Gerosa, Christian Michel and Guido Haschke were among 13 individuals named in the FIR as accused, CBI sources said. Tyagi, who has denied charges against him, is the first Air Chief to be named in a corruption or criminal case by the CBI.

The CBI alleged that during his tenure as Air Chief, Tyagi and "with his approval" the Air Force "conceded to reduce the service ceiling for VVIP helicopters from 6000 metres to 4500 metres.” It alleged that the reduction of service ceiling — maximum height at which a helicopter can perform normally — allowed UK-based AgustaWestland to come into the fray as, otherwise, its helicopters were not even qualified for submission of bids. The CBI alleged that middleman Haschke through his Tunisia- based company Gordian Services Sarl entered into several consultancy contracts with AgustaWestland from 2004-05 onwards. "Almost on back-to-back basis he also made consultancy contracts with the Tyagi brothers (Tyagi's cousins)," sources said.

Under the cover of these contracts, Haschke allegedly sent Euro 1.26 lakh and two lakh to the Tyagi brothers. "Besides these two remittances, the Tyagi brothers also received some unquantified sum of money from the middlemen (Haschke and Gerosa)," the FIR stated. Six firms named in the FIR are Finmeccanica, Italy, AgustaWestland, UK, IDS, Tunisia, Infotech Design System (IDS), Mauritius, and two Indian companies - IDS Infotech Limited, Mohali and Aeromatrix Info Solution Private Limited, Chandigarh.

In the FIR, the CBI has included names of two persons -brother of former Union Minister Santosh Bagrodia, Satish Bagrodia and Pratap Aggarwal. Satish and Pratap are Chairman and Managing Director of the IDS Infotech, respectively.

The CBI said middleman Christian Michel was paid 30 million Euros by AgustaWestland and some part of the money was brought to India.

At least 12 teams of the agency carried out coordinated searches at 14 locations across Delhi, NCR and Chandigarh. It included residences of Tyagi, his cousins and offices of Finmeccanica, AgustaWestland, IDS Infotech and Aeromatrix among others.

The CBI said the agency has got some documents from Italy and files from the Defence Ministry which “indicate criminal conspiracy to make alterations in the requirement of helicopter specifications which suited AgustaWestland.”