Copter deal: CBI grills West Bengal governor MK Narayanan

New Delhi: The CBI on Friday questioned West Bengal Governor M.K. Narayanan as a “witness” in the '3,600 crore AugustaWestland helicopter deal case. This is for the first time that a serving Governor has been questioned by the CBI.

The agency is also preparing to examine his Goa counterpart B.V. Wanchoo as a witness in this case.  
Sources said a CBI team questioned Mr Narayanan at the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata after it had sought time for the same on June 24.
Eighty-year-old Mr Narayanan, who was the former National Security Advisor, was questioned by the agency sleuths for about two hours. Mr Narayanan’s questioning was cleared by the law ministry.

Earlier, the former solicitor general Mohan Parasaran had cautioned the CBI against questioning sitting governors on grounds that they cannot be examined as witnesses until they relinquish their post. Mr Parasaran had quit in May-end following the change in the government.

“During examination, Mr Narayanan was asked specific questions pertaining to 2005 meeting in which a decision was taken to reduce service ceiling (or the altitude at which a helicopter can fly) from the 6,000 metres to 4,500 metres,” sources said.

The Governor explained the rationale behind the decision and also cited that his predecessor in the previous NDA government Brajesh Mishra had decided to lower the service ceiling in December 2003, sources added.

Mr Narayanan was appointed as Governor of West Bengal in 2010.
The agency had sought permission from the union law ministry to record their (Mr Narayanan and Mr Wanchoo) statements as part of its probe into alleged '3600-crore bribe paid in the deal that was scrapped by the UPA government in December last year.

“Now the CBI sleuths want certain clarifications from Mr Wanchoo as he was the head of elite Special Protection Group guarding the Prime Minister. Mr Wanchoo had also participated in the meeting in 2005 that allowed key changes in the tender specifications of the contract,” sources said.

The CBI suspects that the parameters regarding the height at which the helicopters can fly as also the flight evaluation were changed in a manner that enabled AgustaWestland to clinch the deal.
The CBI on March 13, 2012 had booked former Indian Air Force chief, S.P. Tyagi, and 12 others under charges of bribery, cheating and corruption in the VVIP chopper deal.
The former air chief, his cousins — Sanjeev alias Julie, Rajeev alias Docsa and Sandeep, European middlemen Carlo Gerosa, Christian Michel and Guido Haschke were among 13 individuals named in the FIR as accused.