New Delhi: A report claimed on Friday that Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will question to Governor of West Bengal M K Narayanan and his Goan counterpart Bharat Vir Wanchoo in connection with the AugustaWestland chopper deal.
The government had also issued show cause notice to AgustaWestland of UK previously, a subsidiary of Italian defence giant Finmeccanica, on bribery charges in the Rs.4000-crore VVIP chopper deal.
Italian prosecutors said that besides bribing Indian officials for a 12-helicopter deal, Finmeccanica discussed kickbacks for a larger deal with a serving Brigadier in the Indian Army.
The report by the investigators said that an alleged middleman for helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland, a subsidiary of Finmeccanica, touched the feet of former Air Force chief SP Tyagi.
The scandal scandal involved kickbacks worth upto Rs 360 crores for the deal that was worth about Rs 4,000 crores and allegedly took place during the tenure of Tyagi who headed the air force from 2004 to 2007.
Tyagi had denied the allegations and said that he met one of the alleged AgustaWestland middlemen just once contrary to the charges of “six or seven” meetings.
The Italian prosecutors said that middleman Ralph Haschke “confessed” that he met Tyagi six or seven times and once greeted him by touching his feet as a sign of respect.
Bureau Report
Leave a Reply