In the wake of the Italian court’s April 7 judgment, the Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday questioned retired Air Marshal J.S. Gujral in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case. Mr. Gujral appeared before the investigators at the CBI headquarters in the morning and was quizzed for over nine hours. “He will again be called for examination,” said a CBI official, refusing to reveal whether his statement is being recorded as a witness.
The CBI had questioned Mr. Gujral in 2005 to seek clarifications pertaining to a crucial meeting held that year to decide on the policy to be adopted for procurement of the VVIP helicopters. “He had attended the meeting led by the then National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan and therefore, requires to be questioned for corroboration of what transpired in that meeting,” said the official.
The CBI had in June 2014 recorded Mr. Narayanan’s witness statement.
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The agency has also asked retired Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi to rejoin the probe on Monday. Along with his cousins Sanjeev, Sandeep and Rajiv Tyagi, the former air chief has been accused of receiving kickbacks for changing specifications for procurement, which allowed AgustaWestland to bid for the deal.
While Italian papers stated that accused middlemen Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke were supposed to pay €10.5 lakh to the Tyagi brothers, ED records reveal that their companies received €3.6 lakh.
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Named by the ED as one of the major beneficiaries of the AgustaWestland kickbacks, Sandeep Tyagi, cousin of former Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi, is quoted as not confirming that “brothers” mentioned in Italian documents were the Tyagis.
Based on Italian papers, the agency suspects that €4.05 lakh were paid to the Tyagi brothers between 2004 and March 2011; and that the remaining amount of €6.45 lakh was paid to them from April 2011 to Dec. 2011.