Ex-IAF chief Tyagi in the dock over chopper deal

February 13, 2013 09:49

Italy's ongoing probe into its defence firm Finmeccanica's $750 million chopper deal with India now points to the involvement of former Indian Air Force chief SP Tyagi, who was allegedly bribed by the company to swing the contract in its favour.

Hours after arresting Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi, the Italian investigators claimed that the country's state-run defence firm paid huge kickbacks to Tyagi when he was chief of the IAF to swing the controversial AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal in its favour.

Reports on Wednesday claimed that Italian investigators have given details of their ongoing investigation into the alleged chopper deal in a 64-page report that was filed in the tribunal of Busto Arsizio city for the arrest of Finmeccanica CEO on Tuesday.

In the report, the Italian prosecutors have alleged that the then IAF chief, SP Tyagi, was instrumental in swinging the deal and was paid -- "certain amount of money, not yet quantified"- through intermediaries -- one of them being Julie Tyagi, a close relative of the former IAF chief.

The preliminary inquiry report further alleges that technical requirements for the contract were tweaked by India to allow the AgustaWestland chopper enter the bidding process and that kickbacks of 51 million euros (about Rs 370 crore) were paid in Italy and India.

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