Former Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi’s cousin Sanjeev, who is also an accused in the Rs. 3,700-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal, was summoned for a second round of questioning by the Enforcement Directorate on Friday.
The ED, which questioned Sanjeev Tyagi about three days ago, is expected to confront him with the documents obtained through the Italian authorities. The agency has, in the case registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, alleged that he along with his two brothers Rajeev and Sandeep received €1.26 lakh after May 2004 and €2 lakh after February 2005 from Gordian Services.
The transactions allegedly corresponded with the developments taking place in the alteration of the mandatory service ceiling or flying capability of the helicopters.
In another major development, the ED has got a case of destruction of evidence registered against unknown persons after contents of a hard-disk recently seized from the premises of VVIP chopper deal accused Gautam Khaitan were found erased.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the before handing over the hard-disk to the forensic laboratory, the ED had got its contents cloned through a technical expert. The same expert alerted the agency that someone had called him up in an attempt to strike a deal for erasing the contents.
The facts came to light when the forensic science laboratory representatives informed the ED that the said hard-disk did not contain anything. Since the cloned contents had all the documents, the agency believes that contents of the hard-disk were deleted after it was seized by the search team.
The Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police, which has registered the case, has launched a hunt for the person who had contacted the technical expert asking him to do the job.
Although the ED had already obtained copies of the documents contained in the hard-disk, the agency is confident that the act of alleged destruction of evidence would further strengthen their case against the accused persons.