SP Tyagi's cousin took cash, says VVIP chopper scam middleman

NEW DELHI: After investigations began in Italy into the kickbacks in the Rs 3,600 crore chopper deal in 2012, a key middleman in the scam allegedly told his accomplice over phone that a cousin of former IAF Chief SP Tyagi did not face any threat as he had taken money in cash.

In the hearing in a court in Milan, it came out that in the phone conversations between alleged middlemen Guido Haschke and Carlos Gerosa, Haschke allegedly said Julie Tyagi (a cousin of former IAF chief Tyagi) does not face any threat in the investigations as he received the money in cash, sources said.

During the questioning in the Italian court, Italian Police Marshal and in-charge of the AgustaWestland bribery case in Italy De Venere also recognised a picture of Julie Tyagi and gave details of his meetings with alleged middleman Haschke and Gerosa in Italy and Switzerland, they said.

The Italian police authorities have also informed the court in Milan about a meeting between the two former CEOs of AgustaWestland and the then Indian Ambassador to Italy in March 2012, they said.

The two former CEOs Guiseppe Orsi and Bruno Spagnolini have already been arrested in the case and are going to be questioned during the hearing on April 15.

India has already scrapped the Rs 3,600 crore contract after it found an alleged breach of the pre-contract integrity pact by the Anglo-Italian firm and is getting into arbitration with it.