ED files supplementary charge sheet against former Air Force Chief S P Tyagi, others in #AgustaBriberyScandal

New Delhi, July 19: Moving a step further in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday filed a supplementary charge sheet against former Air Force Chief S P Tyagi and others in a Delhi court.

 

Notably, the supplementary charge sheet against former Air Force Chief S P Tyagi, his two cousins, lawyer Gautam Khaitan, two Italian middlemen and Finmeccanica in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam case was filed before special judge Arvind Kumar in a Delhi court. Finmeccanica is the parent company of AgustaWestland.

The ED in its charge sheet alleged that all the accused are involved in money laundering of around 28 million Euro. It further alleged that money was laundered through multiple foreign companies which were used as fronts to park alleged kickbacks. The charge sheet filed through special public prosecutor NK Matta will be taken into consideration on Friday, this week.

 

BACKGROUND:

In the year 2013, a parliamentary panel investigation found that several politicians and bureaucrats had allegedly accepted bribes to swing the deal for 12 AgustaWestland helicopters.

The initial cost of 12 VVIP choppers were approximately Rs 2,666 crore but were signed in a deal that was worth Rs 3,726 crore in the year of 2010. The government had to bear a loss of more than Rs 1,000 crore due to corruption.

On 1 January 2014, India had scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica’s British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over an alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of kickbacks of RS 423 crore paid by it to secure the deal. Both CBI and ED are probing in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam case.