AugustaWestland case: ED slaps money laundering case against ex-IAF chief

The agency, which earlier registered a case under foreign exchange laws in this deal, decided to lodge a criminal case to trace the bribe money involving middlemen and other people named by CBI in its FIR filed in March 2013.

  

Taking cognizance of the more-than-a-year-old CBI complaint, the agency has booked Tyagi, his family members, European nationals Carlo Gerosa, Christian Michel and Guido Haschke, four companies - Italy-based Finmeccanica, UK-based AgustaWestland and Chandigarh-based IDS Infotech and Aeromatrix, two companies based in Mauritius and Tunisia, few other firms and unknown persons in its criminal complaint filed under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

  

A total of 21 entities have been named by ED in the case.

  

Investigators of the agency, sources said, would use legal channels to obtain court documents from Italy.

  

Sources said that the agency will soon initiate the process of recording of statements of these people even as it dispatches Letters Rogatory (LRs), or judicial requests to a few European countries, including Italy, seeking their cooperation.

  

Sources also said that the agency has already zeroed in on some of the immovable and movable assets of the accused which will be attached under the provisions of the laundering laws.  

In order to track the alleged ‘bribe money’ in this deal, it was important for the agency to register a criminal case as that would be conducive for it to seek cooperation from other countries under existing treaties and tax information exchange protocols, the sources added.

  

The supply of 12 VVIP helicopters from AgustaWestland came under the scanner after Italian authorities alleged that bribe was paid by the company to clinch the deal.

  

The Italian prosecutor who carried out the preliminary inquiry alleged that the CEO of Finmeccanica, the parent company of UK-based AgustaWestland, had used the services of middlemen to bribe Indian officials.

CBI has already approached Defence Ministry seeking relevant documents and other vital details available with them in this regard.

  

The documents, sources said, would help both the probes registered by ED - of foreign exchange violations (under the Foreign Exchange Management Act) and the laundering case filed on Friday.

  

Sources said that both cases registered by ED would be looked into separately.

  

The agency has also got in touch with some banks which were found to have been used to channel funds of private firms and individuals allegedly involved in the case.

  

CBI's allegation against the former air chief is that he reduced the flying ceiling of the helicopter so that AgustaWestland was included in the bids.

Tyagi has dismissed the allegations against him and denied any wrongdoing.

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VVIP helicopter deal: CBI records statement of Goa Governor Wanchoo

His questioning comes a week after former West Bengal governor M K Narayanan was quizzed by the CBI after which he demitted his office.

The CBI team questioned Wanchoo in Panaji and recorded his statement.

Sources said the need to record statements of Wanchoo and Narayanan was felt as both had participated in the meeting in 2005 that allowed key changes in the technical specifications of the chopper.

The CBI had registered a case against former IAF chief S P Tyagi along with 13 others including his cousins and European middlemen in the case.

The allegation against the former IAF chief was that he had reduced flying ceiling of the helicopter so that AgustaWestland was included in the bids. Tyagi has refuted the allegation against him.

The CBI has alleged reduction of the service ceiling, maximum height at which a helicopter can perform normally, allowed UK-based firm to get into the fray as, otherwise, its helicopters were not even qualified for submission of bids.

The investigating agency claims the parameters regarding the height at which the helicopter can fly as well as the flight evaluation were changed in a manner that enabled AgustaWestland to clinch the deal vis-a-vis its competitor Sikorsky.

Pleased to give statement to CBI, says Wanchoo

Goa Governor BV Wanchoo said he was ‘pleased’ to give his statement to the CBI and hoped that the investigating agency would bring out the truth in the case at the earliest.

A statement issued by Wanchoo’s office after the CBI team left his official residence in Panaji said the Governor recorded his statement as a ‘witness’ in the VVIP helicopter case under Section 161 CrPC.

Under this section, any police officer may examine orally any person supposed to be acquainted with the facts and circumstances of a case.

According to the statement, Wanchoo, after becoming aware that the CBI was desirous of recording his statement as a witness, was very keen that the same be recorded at the earliest for the purpose of completing the legal process in the case.

“The Governor was, therefore, happy when a formal request from the CBI was received on June 24 where after the CBI was intimated that they could record the Governor's statement in Goa,” the statement said.

“The Governor was, therefore, pleased to give his statement as a witness today,” the statement said, adding that Wanchoo hoped that ‘his statement would have clarified any issues that the CBI may have had and hopes that the CBI would conclude their investigation to bring out the truth at the very earliest’.

West Bengal Governor resigns after being questioned

West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan, who was questioned as a witness by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the VVIP chopper deal, stepped down from his post on June 30.

The resignation of 80-year-old Narayanan came days after Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami had telephoned some of the Governors, appointed by the previous UPA regime, to step down after Narendra Modi-led NDA government assumed charge at the Centre.

Narayanan was the National Security Adviser in 2005 when Indian officials decided to amend technical specifications for 12 helicopters that the UPA government wanted to buy for use by the Prime Minister and President.

The chopper deal in which allegations of Rs 360-crore bribe were levelled was scrapped by the former Congress-led UPA government in 2013.

 The investigating agency claims the parameters regarding the height at which the helicopters can fly as also the flight evaluation were changed in a manner that enabled AgustaWestland to clinch the deal vis-a-vis its competitor Sikorsky.

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