Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday registered a money laundering case against former IAF chief S P Tyagi and others in connection with the case of alleged kickbacks received in the Rs 3,600 crore VVIP chopper deal.
The development came on the day Goa governor B V Wanchoo resigned shortly after being questioned by CBI in connection with the case. Only days earlier, West Bengal governor M K Narayanan became the first governor to be questioned in connection with the alleged scam by CBI. He resigned subsequently. Both claimed they were questioned as witnesses in the case.
ED, which earlier registered a case under foreign exchange laws in this deal, decided to slap a criminal case to track the "illegal money" of the bribe, alleged to be over Rs 360 crore, dealt between the middlemen and other people named by CBI in its FIR filed in March 2013.
Taking cognisance of the more-than-a-year-old CBI complaint, the agency has booked Tyagi, his family members, European nationals Carlo Gerosa, Christian Michel and Guido Haschke and four companies — Italy-based Finmeccanica, UK-based AgustaWestland and Chandigarh-based IDS Infotech and Aeromatrix — in its criminal complaint filed under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
A total of 13 entities have been named by ED in the case. Sources said the agency will soon initiate the process of recording of statements of these people even as it dispatches Letters Rogatory (LRs), or judicial requests to a few European countries, including Italy, seeking their cooperation.
CBI sources said Wanchoo was questioned to know whether the elite Special Protection Group was in the know of former IAF chief S P Tyagi's alleged connivance with officials of AgustaWestland. It is learnt that Wanchoo was asked about the meeting which took place in 2005 where decision to lower the service ceiling of the helicopters, which made AgustaWestland eligible, was taken.
Meanwhile, ED sources said the agency has already zeroed in on some immovable and movable assets of the accused which will be attached under the provisions of the laundering laws.
In order to track the alleged "bribe money" in this deal, it was important for the agency to register a criminal case as that would pave the way for it to seek cooperation from other countries under existing treaties and tax information exchange protocols, sources said.
The supply of 12 VVIP helicopters from AgustaWestland came under the scanner after Italian authorities alleged that bribe was paid by the company to clinch the deal.
The Italian prosecutor who carried out the preliminary inquiry alleged that the CEO of Finmeccanica, the parent company of UK-based AgustaWestland, had used the services of middlemen to bribe Indian officials.
via The Times of India
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