Former Air Chief Tyagi is like family, we stand by him: Raha

A former Air Chief is like an extended family and the service would stand by him till he is proven guilty, said Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Arup Raha on Wednesday.

He was speaking to the media ahead of his retirement on December 31.

“If charges are proven, we have no sympathy for him,” he said, referring to the arrest of former ACM S. P. Tyagi in the AgustaWestland case.

Till the charges against ACM Tyagi were proven, “he deserves his due,” ACM Raha said.

ACM Tyagi was arrested on December 09 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on charges of receiving kickbacks in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case and was granted bail by a Special Court early this week.

On the series of corruption charges in defence deals, ACM Raha said they have surfaced from “time to time” but despite investigations nothing has been acheived in pin pointing those responsible.

Missing An-32 worst incident of my tenure

Talking of his tenure as Chief, ACM Raha said the incident of the missing An-32 transport aircraft was one of the worst memories.

He said the major set backs were the terror attack on Pathankot air base and the missing An-32.

“We have learnt our lessons. We are well prepared to tackle terror attacks,” he said.

The IAF An-32 medium transport aircraft took off on a routine weekly courier flight from Chennai to Port Blair on July 22 at 08:30 hrs with six crew and 23 personnel but never reached the destination.

ACM Raha said that despite extensive efforts on the surface and sub-surface domains the 29 missing personnel could not be located.

“We have flown over 300 sorties and more than 1000 hours over the area of interest. But we could not locate it. We have approached the government to contract agencies abroad with the capability,” he observed.

Some 30 odd objects resembling that of the missing aircraft were identified at depths of 3.5 kms. A Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) has been pressed in to bring back the objects but after 10 were brought back it malfunctioned. Repairs are now being carried out to get it back into service.