ADVERTISEMENT

AgustaWestland Deal: CBI Arrests Former Indian Air Force Chief SP Tyagi, 2 Others

This is the first time a former IAF chief has been arrested by the CBI.



Visitors look at an AW149 military helicopter, produced by AgustaWestland, a unit of Finmeccanica (Photographer: Paul Thomas/Bloomberg)
Visitors look at an AW149 military helicopter, produced by AgustaWestland, a unit of Finmeccanica (Photographer: Paul Thomas/Bloomberg)

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday arrested former Indian Air Force chief SP Tyagi and two others for alleged corruption in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP choppers deal.

Tyagi, who retired in 2007, was questioned by the CBI extensively in the past in this case.

Along with Tyagi, his cousin Sanjiv alias Julie Tyagi and lawyer Gautam Khaitan were also arrested.

"This is for first time a former IAF chief has been arrested by the central probe agency," official sources said.

On January 1, 2014, India had scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of paying kickbacks of Rs 423 crore by it for securing the deal.

CBI had also got issued Letters Rogatory (judicial requests) to multiple countries to gather more leads and evidences in this case.