NEW DELHI: The CBI on Friday broke new ground by arresting former Indian Air Force (IAF) chief S P Tyagi and two others for alleged corruption in the Rs 3,767 crore AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter deal. This is for first time that a former IAF chief has been arrested by the CBI. Tyagi had retired from service in 2007.
The CBI quantified the total payoff as 12 per cent of the contract value, sources said.
With Tyagi’s arrest, the Narendra Modi government has given yet another indication of its determination to go after black money.
Besides Tyagi, the agency arrested his cousin Sanjiv alias Julie Tyagi and lawyer/consultant Gautam Khaitan. All the three accused have in the past been grilled by the agency several times in connection with the probe.
A case was registered on March 12, 2013 under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 against then Chief of Air Staff and 18 other accused persons/companies.
“It was alleged that Chief of Air Staff (CAS) entered into criminal conspiracy with other accused persons and in 2005, conceded to change IAF’s consistent stand that service ceiling of VVIP helicopters at 6000 metres was an inescapable operational necessity and reduced the same to 4500 metres. Such changes in Operational Requirements (ORs) made the private company based at UK, eligible to participate in the RFP (request for proposal) for VVIP helicopters,” the CBI said in a statement.
“It was revealed during investigation that such undue favours were allegedly shown to the said UK-based private company by accepting the illegal gratifications from the accused vendors through middlemen/relatives including his cousin and an advocate etc. who accepted the illegal gratification for exercising influence through illegal means, or using personal influence over the concerned public servants,” the statement added. The arrested accused persons will be produced before the competent court here on Saturday.