Enforcement Directorate likely to quiz ex-IAF chief Tyagi in Augusta case

NEW DELHI: Enforcement Directorate, which is probing alleged money laundering in the Rs 3,700 crore AugustaWestland VVIP helicopter deal, is likely to call former IAF chief SP Tyagi's three cousins for questioning within the next fortnight before Tyagi himself is interrogated in connection with the bribery charges.

The trail of the over Rs 540 crore alleged kickbacks in the VVIP chopper deal has revealed a maze of transactions across Dubai, Tunisia, Singapore, Mauritius and Switzerland. Sources said the defence ministry has been closely coordinating with CBI and ED and has been providing them with English translation of all documents related to the investigations carried out in Italy.

The summons to Tyagi's cousins — Rajeev, Sanjeev and Sandeep — is likely to go next week and they may be asked to explain the receipt of consultancy fees from Tunisian firm Gordian Services which is linked to middlemen in the AugustaWestland deal. The agency has documentary evidence of the Tyagi brothers having received 'fees' for their services around the time that SP Tyagi was IAF chief. The kickbacks trail in Dubai and Switzerland may reveal significant leads to nail some influential persons. The alleged payoff in the chopper deal was more than Rs 540 crore (euro 70 million), ED had claimed last week while opposing the bail plea of Gautam Khaitan, the only middleman arrested by the agency so far in connection with the case.

Though ED had started a discreet inquiry into the alleged kickbacks as early as February 2013, a formal case was lodged under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) only in July this year after the NDA government took charge.

ED's offshore investigation is focused on the beneficiaries of the Rs 540 crore payoff and may result in questioning of some officials holding key positions in the previous UPA regime. Initially, Italian authorities had claimed that the bribe paid to bag the deal was in the range of Rs 350 crore.

Besides former IAF chiefs SP Tyagi and Fali H Major, federal auditor comptroller and auditor general (CAG) had in its report tabled in Parliament in August 2013 claimed that former national security advisor MK Narayanan was among key officials who tweaked various specifications that finally resulted in the 2010 purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters from AgustaWestland.
The 38-page CAG report had rejected the government's arguments that fair practices were adopted, and asserted that the defence ministry, at the behest of the prime minister's office (PMO) in 2005, modified certain key parameters of the operational requirements of helicopters to favour AgustaWestland which remained the sole vendor as a result.

The government auditor had also questioned the exorbitant cost at which the deal was finalized. In January 2006, when acceptance of necessity was granted, the projected cost was Rs 793 crore for 12 helicopters. Three years later, in February 2009, the cost negotiation committee, however, recommended Rs 3,726.96 crore.