AgustaWestland: CBI makes a breakthrough

New Delhi, May 4: When the Enforcement Directorate questions former chief of the Indian Airforce, S P Tyagi they would try and ascertain the nature of four firms and also the alleged role in the AgustaWestland deal. The four Noida based firms were allegedly set up in 2011 allegedly by Tyagi.

The four firms have come under the scanner of both the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate and both agencies are probing to find out the exact nature of these firms and whether they were used to move or receive money relating to the AgustaWestland deal.

ED questioning on May 5

The Enforcement Directorate will question Tyagi on May 5th in connection with this case. For the ED finding out the nature of the four Noida based firms, Shavan, Anuras, Vanshi and Meghanshu will be crucial. An ED official informed OneIndia that there is no clarity on what these firms were set up for.

"We are trying to ascertain the nature and also will question the former Air Chief if these were in any way linked to the AgustaWestland deal. We have found a number of such firms which were used as fronts to receive payments from the middlemen of AgustaWestland," the official said.

Breakthrough for CBI

The Central Bureau of Investigation claim that during the two day of questioning of Tyagi it had achieved a major breakthrough. During the questioning Tyagi is said to have admitted meeting Giorgio Zappa on February 15 2005. Zappa is the COO of Finmeccanica.

When Tyagi was asked whether he had met with the COO, he had initially denied the same. However the CBI showed him the visitor's diary following which he admitted to have meeting the COO. He however denied any wrong doing.

Tyagi will be questioned again today with the CBI along with Delhi based lawyer Gautam Khaitan. According to the CBI, Khaitan had met with the middlemen of AgustaWestland and even set up firms to receive kickbacks the agency has alleged.

In addition to this the CBI also alleges that Tyagi had met with former Chief Executive of AgustaWestland, Bruno Spagnolini. His alleged meetings with middlemen Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa are also under the scanner.

These meetings are alleged to have taken place in 2007. The CBI feels that these meetings had lead to tweaking the deal in favour of AgustaWestland.

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