AgustaWestland chopper scam: Gautam Khaitan 'admits' he got money from middlemen

NEW DELHI: While the Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned former IAF chief S P Tyagi for the first time on Thursday, Delhi-based lawyer Gautam Khaitan, accused of parking alleged kickbacks in the VVIP chopper scam, is learnt to have admitted to the CBI that he had received money from European middlemen Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke but it was not part of any illicit payment.However, he cited his January 2015 bail grounds to say that he was picked as he was a "soft target" while "influential people were not arrested".

Khaitan was arrested by the ED in September 2014 in its " money laundering" probe in the AgustaWestland scam. He had approached the Delhi high court seeking bail, stating that 21 people were named as accused in the FIR including Tyagi and his cousins who were still at large but he was the only one arrested by ED and kept in jail for three months.

"Gautam Khaitan stated that the money in his accounts is his regular income which he receives from his businesses overseas. He cited his bail plea which he filed in Delhi high court and later special court in Delhi to claim that the big fish were roaming free," a senior CBI officer said. "He claims the money was not part of any kickbacks, which we do not believe," the officer added.

Also read: AgustaWestland deal: Why CBI attended only few hearings in Italian court

The ED had chargesheeted Khaitan in 2014 and alleged that "after incorporating a company IDS Tunisia, two European middlemen Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke along with Khaitan had received 24.6 million euros (Rs 160 crore) from AgustaWestland Spa, out of which 3.88 million euros (Rs 24.6 crore) had been transferred to Aeromatrix, while 1.88 million euros (Rs 12 crore) were transferred to IDS Infotech India in the garb of engineering contracts".

Meanwhile, the ED asked Tyagi questions related to meetings with Haschke, Finmeccanica officials and the bribe money allegedly given to him and his cousins and his property details.

Sources said a detailed qu estionnaire was prepared for Tyagi. He has been reportedly called for questioning again on Friday . After almost 10 hours of questioning by the ED, Tyagi left the agency around 8 pm. The former IAF chief was earlier grilled by the CBI for three days during which he reportedly admitted to owning or holding shares in five companies, as first reported by TOI.

In a related development, CBI recently wrote to Shravan Gupta, managing director of Emaar-MGF, seeking details on how Haschke and Khaitan came on the board of directors of the company in 2009.Sources said Gupta has already replied to the CBI in writing. During his questioning on Wednesday with ED, Gupta is learnt to have said that since Emaar-MGF was looking for independent directors, it contacted Khaitan who in turn also brought in Haschke.