Even as retired Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi on Tuesday purportedly confessed to the Central Bureau of Investigation that he had met the COO of Italian military major Finmeccanica when he was still in office in February 2005, the Enforcement Directorate claims to have strong reasons to believe that he had met two of the middlemen in the chopper deal.
“Mr. Tyagi on Monday denied having met any official of Finmeccanica, the parent company of AgustaWestland. However, when shown a visitor’s diary records, he has now accepted that he had met the company’s then chief operating officer Giorgio Zappa on February 15, 2005. He was questioned for about 11 hours,” said a CBI official, adding that he has been summoned again on Wednesday along with another accused Gautam Khaitan.
ED summons
The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Mr. Tyagi for questioning on May 5.
The CBI considers Mr. Tyagi’s “confession” on the meeting with Mr. Zappa as a breakthrough in the case. According to reports, accused middleman Guido Haschke, had told the Italian police that he had also met the then Finmeccanica COO Zappa during a visit to India as part of an official delegation led by the former Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in 2005.
The then Italian President was visiting India in February 12-16, 2005. The Italian authorities quoted Haschke as saying: “I saw Zappa for the first time on the occasion of the visit of President Ciampi in India in February 2005.” In his statement to the Enforcement Directorate, the retired Air Chief Marshal’s cousin Sanjeev Tyagi has claimed that he did not know Mr. Zappa. However, he had heard that Mr. Zappa was some high ranking official of Finmeccanica.
Noida firms
The CBI has also identified four Noida-based companies — Meghanshu, Shavan, Anuras and Vanshi — that were set up by the retired air chief in 2011-12, almost four years after his retirement in 2007. According to the CBI, the agency is trying to ascertain the nature of services provided by these companies and their financial transactions.
According to the Enforcement Directorate, they need to question Mr. Tyagi on his purported meetings with two of the middlemen in the deal.
The agencies have identified three alleged middlemen, Guido Haschke, Carlo Gerosa and Christian Michel.
They would also ask him about his trip to Italy after his retirement in 2007.
