Former Air Chief SP Tyagi was arrested by CBI over alleged irregularities in AgustaWestland chopper deal.
Former Air Chief SP Tyagi, arrested in connection with the Rs 3,600 crore VVIP chopper scam earlier this month, has been sent to jail till December 30 by a court in Delhi. The former Air Chief was interrogated by the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI for a week in connection with the AgustaWestland chopper scandal, since his arrest on December 10. In court today, the CBI did not ask for further custody.
The defence team mentioned in court reports from Italy, which say that
country's top court has ordered a re-trial in the case in Italy against two former top executives of defence group Finmeccanica, which is the parent organization of AgustaWestland. According to some reports, the grounds for cancellation of the Milan High Court judgement by the Italian Supreme Court are based on the fact that the original complaints and those that led to the conviction for the offence of corruption differ by "date, place and persons."
The court in Delhi, however, said it will take it up when the bail hearing of all three accused - SP Tyagi, his cousin Sanjeev Tyagi and Delhi-based lawyer Gautam Khaitan - comes up on December 21, next Tuesday.
Mr Tyagi's wife broke down in court on hearing the judgement.
The 71-year-old former Air Chief has been accused of abusing his official position to swing the deal for a dozen VVIP choppers in favour of Finmeccanica - the parent company of UK-based helicopter maker AgustaWestland - by investigators in Italy and India. It has been said that he had altered the specifications of the tender at the instance of his cousins.
Mr Tyagi, who headed the Air Force between 2005 and 2007, has maintained that changing the specifications of the helicopters that made Agusta eligible, was not his decision alone. In 2003, the Prime Minister's Office asked the air chief to get involved in the procurement and the changes in specifications were suggested during a meeting in 2005, he has said.