A stock photo of an AgustaWestland helicopter.
CBI officials said Shashi Kant Sharma was Secretary of Defense between 2011 and 2013, before being appointed CAG.
- PTI New Delhi
- Last update: September 11, 2020 8:04 PM IST
- FOLLOW US:
The CBI has requested a sanction to prosecute former defense secretary Shashi Kant Sharma, who later became Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in connection with alleged corruption in the Rs 3,600 Agusta Westland VVIP helicopter deal, officials said. on Friday. The agency is likely to present a supplemental charge sheet giving the role of Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the deal who was deported from the United Arab Emirates and is currently in judicial custody, they said.
In its supplemental charge sheet, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is also likely to provide the alleged roles of some former public servants, who held key decision-making positions when the helicopter deal was discussed, officials said. . In order to prosecute the officers whose alleged role emerged during the investigation, the CBI has approached the Defense Ministry seeking authorization to prosecute Sharma and then-Deputy Air Marshal Jasbir Singh Panesar, among others, they said.
Officials said Sharma was secretary of defense between 2011 and 2013, before being appointed CAG. The agency also requested a sanction to indict three former Indian Air Force (IAF) officers: Deputy Chief Test Pilot SA Kunte, Wing Commander Thomas Mathew and Group Captain N Santosh, they said, adding that Kunte and Santosh retired as air passengers. Officials said the sanction has been pending at the Defense Ministry since March.
Bribes are alleged to have been paid to make Agusta Westland eligible for the 12 VVIP helicopter deal, they said. The need for new helicopters to carry VVIPs – the president, prime minister, vice president and defense minister – was felt in 1999 when a proposal was put forward to find an alternative to the IAF’s Soviet-era Mi8s.
The Agusta Westland helicopters did not meet the IAF’s 6,000 meter ceiling parameter. Then-IAF Chief SP Tyagi played a role in recommending lowering the helicopter’s operating ceiling from 6,000 meters to 4,500 meters, prompting Agusta Westland on the run, the IWC alleged. The IAF strongly opposed the changes, but when Tyagi became the chief, he recommended the changes, the agency alleged.
According to the CBI, this was allegedly done at the behest of the top executives of Finmeccanica and Agusta Westland, who hired the services of three intermediaries – Michel, Guido Haschke and Carlos Gerosa – who allegedly paid bribes to Tyagi and his cousins Rajiv, Sandeep and Julie . The agency has alleged that Michel’s companies received around 42.27 million euros, roughly seven percent, from the companies to change the Rs 3,600 crore deal in their favor. The bribes were allegedly sent through companies owned by Michel and a defender, Gautam Khaitan, in the form of multiple contracts through layered transactions to camouflage them.
.
