The Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) has asked the Union government for a judicial sanction against the former Secretary of Defense and Comptroller and Auditor General of India Shashi Kant Sharma, the former Deputy Air Marshal Jasbir Singh Panesar and three other Air Force officers IAF in connection with the alleged Rs 3,727 crore AgustaWestland helicopter scam, people familiar with the development said.
Sharma was deputy secretary (air) in the defense ministry when the contract for the supply of 12 VVIP helicopters was being considered and when the operational requirements (OR) for the deal were being finalized. The contract, alleged violations and bribes in the agreement became one of the biggest controversies during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime, it was awarded to the Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland in February 2010.
Sharma was later India’s Secretary of Defense between July 2011 and May 2013, and then CAG until 2017. This is the first time that his name has appeared in connection with the case.
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The words “JS Air”, an apparent reference to the appointment of Undersecretary (Air), appeared repeatedly in Italian court rulings on the matter, as part of a note written by British intermediary Christian Michel, who allegedly organized bribes to politicians and officials. In India.
“Like JS (Air), Sharma was part of key meetings at the Defense Ministry,” said a CBI official when asked about the prosecution’s sanction. He declined to elaborate, although he confirmed that the request was made in writing to the Defense Ministry. HT has seen the application document. The details of Sharma’s alleged role in the case are unclear at this time.
Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act requires the IWC to seek judicial sanction from the department in question before filing a charge sheet against a government official.
Sharma did not respond to emails requesting comment.
A second IWC official, who asked not to be identified, maintained that Panesar and the three IAF officers played important and questionable roles in the purchase and testing of the AW-101 helicopters. At this time, no further details of Panesar’s alleged role are known.
The three officers against whom sanctions have been requested from the Ministry of Defense include Deputy Chief Test Pilot SA Kunte, Wing Commander Thomas Mathew and Group Captain N Santosh. All three officers have retired.
Panesar and the three officers could not be located. The former air vice marshal’s office did not share contact details.
The second CBI official added that a supplemental charge sheet, detailing the alleged roles played by Sharma, Panesar, Kunte, Mathew and Santosh, is ready and will be presented as soon as the government agrees to the sanction. The charge sheet will also detail the roles of a dozen other officials and individuals that amount to conspiracy and rape under the corruption prevention law, he added.
At Michel, CBI’s supplemental charge sheet will explain how he paid bribes to Indian officials to influence the decision in favor of AgustaWestland and then destroyed the trail, the second officer said.
Michel was extradited to India in December 2018 and is currently in Tihar prison.
CBI filed its first charge sheet in the case in September 2017, naming former IAF chief SP Tyagi; former Vice Marshal JS Gujral; the former CEO of AgustaWestland, Bruno Spagnolini; the former president of Finmeccanica, Giuseppe Orsi; Michel and his two associates, Guido Ralph Haschke and Carlo Gerosa; SP Tyagi’s cousin, Sanjeev Tyagi; and Delhi-based lawyer-intermediary Gautam Khaitan.
All have denied wrongdoing.
According to a note, allegedly written by Michel sometime in 2008 in his London office, 30 million euros would be distributed among Indian bureaucrats, politicians and air force officers.
The note used abbreviations for designations under the headings “AF” (which investigators said meant air force), “BUR” (bureaucrats, according to detectives), “POL” (politicians), and “Fam” (believed to be is from SP Tyagi). family). The note mentioned that 6 million euros were for “AF”, 8.4 million euros for “BUR”, 3 million euros for “Pol” and 15-16 million euros for “Fam”.
Guido Haschke disclosed several of the abbreviations under the heading to Italian investigators, according to court documents. The 2016 Italian court ruling in the case, sentenced Orsi and Spagnolini, said Haschke admitted to these expenditures Michel incurred in the Indian army, bureaucracy and politicians. Spagnolini and Orsi were later acquitted by an appeals court in Milan in September 2018.
The IWC stated in its first charge sheet (HT has seen a copy) that, in 2004, officials from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Special Protection Group (SPG), and officials from the air force and the ministry of defense agreed to change mandatory service. helicopter ceiling from 6,000 meters to 4,500 meters. This, it claimed, ultimately benefited the Anglo-Italian company AgustaWestland.
CBI also says it has established a “money trail” of 62 million euros (about 415 crore) out of the alleged 67 million euros (Rs 452 crore) in bribes allegedly paid to Indian officials through intermediaries.
Irregularities in the contract award to AgustaWestland resulted in an estimated loss of € 398.21 million (about Rs 2666 million) to the Indian government on the contract of € 556.262 million (Rs 3726.9 million), according to CBI.
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