CBI arrests former IAF Chief SP Tyagi in AgustaWestland case

New Delhi: The CBI on Friday arrested former IAF chief S P Tyagi, who is accused of receiving kick-backs in the multi-million AgustaWestland chopper deal case.

The agency also arrested Gautam Khaitan, a Delhi-based lawyer and Sanjeev Tyagi alias Julie Tyagi in connection with the case.

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

Tyagi has denied allegations that he had influenced the 3,600-crore deal for VVIP helicopters in favour of Italy's AgustaWestland during is tenure as the IAF chief.

“Total deal amount in AgustaWestland was Rs 3767 Crore and bribe amount was 12% of main amount,” the CBI said on Friday.

Over the past few years, the retired IAF chief has been repeatedly grilled for several hours by the investigating agency over his links with the middlemen who helped broker the deal. He had also been quizzed about the source of funding for his post-retirement trip to Italy.

Earlier this year, the Milan Court of Appeals — equivalent of an Indian High Court — had given details of how alleged bribes were paid by helicopter-maker Finmeccanica and AgustaWestland to Indian officials through middlemen to clinch the deal. The order mentioned the name of Tyagi at several points. But Tyagi to this day denies any wrongdoing in the case.

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.