The Enforcement Directorate has identified properties worth Rs.10 crore, including the assets of a firm in which former Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi was allegedly a partner, for attachment on money-laundering charges in connection with the VVIP chopper deal case.
While statements of several accused and witnesses have been recorded, the directorate plans to summon Mr. Tyagi soon. He and his cousins Sanjeev, Rajeev and Sandeep Tyagi have been named as accused by both the Central Bureau of Investigation and the directorate.
As part of the probe into the alleged bribe money trail, the directorate is learnt to have zeroed in on over half-a-dozen properties belonging to the accused, located in Noida, Gurgaon and a few other places. The provisional attachment of the assets as “proceeds of crime” would be made under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The total on-paper value of the properties in question is about Rs. 10 crore. It includes assets worth Rs. 1.66 crore belonging to a Noida-based partnership firm. The firm, in which Mr. Tyagi and his cousins are said to be partners, was incorporated in April 2010. The former Air Chief Marshal had retired from service in 2007.
The directorate had earlier attached assets worth Rs. 1.12 crore acquired by British national Christian Michel, who has been accused by the CBI of having received €30 million from supplier AgustaWestland and its parent company Finmeccanica to bribe Indian officials and help swing the Rs.3,700-crore deal in their favour.
The directorate had last year arrested Gautam Khaitan, former Board member of the Chandigarh-based tech firm named in the case, for his alleged role in routing funds for kickbacks.
The CBI investigation in its own case pertaining to a deal for the supply of 12 helicopters, which was scrapped by the Indian government in January last year following bribery allegations, is under way.
