VVIP chopper deal: Look-out notices for SP Tyagi, 3 cousins

New Delhi, Mar 18: The Central Bureau of Investigation (

) has alerted airports across India to ensure that Air Chief Marshal (retired) Shashi P Tyagi, whom it has booked in connection with the VVIP chopper deal, does not leave the country

The agency has also issued look-out notices for the former air chief's three cousins - Sandeep Tyagi, Rajeev Tyagi alias Docsa and Sanjeev Tyagi alias Julie - and five other persons who feature among the accused in the FIR filed by the CBI on Mar 13.

Cases have been registered against 13 persons including Shashi P Tyagi under IPC sections 120 and 420 as well as under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Since some of these accused may go abroad to escape prosecution, the CBI has issued the look-out notices as a preventive measure.

The main charge against Shashi P Tyagi is that while he served as the Air Chief in Mar 2005, the Indian Air Force (IAF) surprisingly changed its stance and gave its consent "to reduce the service ceiling for VVIP helicopters from 6000 meters to 4500 meters". Till then, the IAF had insisted on the mandatory service ceiling of six kms.

According to the CBI, the reduction of service ceiling meant that AgustaWestland whose AW-101 choppers could not perform normally at a height over 5000 metres was allowed to submit a bid for the chopper deal.

Italian investigators have seized transcripts of phone conversations which reveal that Shashi P Tyagi's cousins were paid bribes by some middlemen on behalf of AgustaWestland and its parent company Finmeccanica. Guido Haschke, Christian Michel and Carlo Gerosa were the main middlemen who helped Finmeccanica clinch the Rs 3600 crore deal.

The CBI has found that the kickbacks were routed to the Tyagis through engineering contracts in Mauritius and Tunisia. The agency has already carried out 14 raids at Shashi P Tyagi's home and the offices of his cousins.

OneIndia News