AgustaWestland, Vijay Mallya Cases Fast Tracked With Special Probe Team

New Delhi: A special team has been formed to investigate the AgustaWestland case and the one against Vijay Mallya by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The team will be headed by Additional Director General Rakesh Asthana - an officer said to be handpicked by the team of Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- and it will report to the director of the agency.  

Mr Asthana, a 1984 batch police service officer of Gujarat cadre, headed the state Special Investigation Team that probed the burning of Sabarmati Express in Godhra in February 2002. He was also associated with the probe into the fodder scam in Bihar.

The agency, however, has denied the change has anything to do with the efficacy of the earlier team.

It has also denied that Mr Asthana was brought in so that agency chief Anil Sinha could recuse himself after criticism that he attended a meeting linked to the acquisition of the VVIP choppers, held at the Prime Minister's Office in 2004. At the time, the officer was part of the Special Protection Group.

The team will help fast track the investigation into the VVIP chopper scam, trying to pin down the beneficiaries of the kickbacks and ascertain the chain of fund flow.

Recently an Italian court has convicted the former heads of Finmeccanica and AgustaWestland. The court found irregularities committed by Finmeccanica subsidiary AgustaWestland in the sale of 12 VVIP helicopters to India.

The Rs 3,600 deal, made by the previous UPA government, was allegedly clinched after paying hefty bribes. Defence minister Manohar Parrikar has said AugustaWestland was favoured at "every stage of the acquisition process.

The other case the special team will probe relates to alleged diversion of loans of thousands of crores of rupees taken by Kingfisher Airlines to foreign accounts.