The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a supplementary charge sheet in a special court in Delhi against former Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma and four Indian Air Force personnel in alleged connection with the Rs 3,700-crore AgustaWestland scam. According to officials aware of the developments in the case, the central probe agency filed the charge sheet after taking the approval from the central government to prosecute Sharma, who was the Defence Secretary between 2011 and 2013 before being appointed the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
It has also named the then Air Vice Marshal Jasbir Singh Panesar (now retired), deputy chief test pilot S A Kunte, the then Wing Commander Thomas Mathew, and Group Captain N Santosh, officials added. Kunte and Santosh retired as air commodores.
The alleged scam, which is being probed by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED), relates to the purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters from AgustaWestland.
On March 11, the Delhi High Court dismissed the bail applications of Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland scam. “The application is dismissed. Same order in the other application,” Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri had said.
Seeking his release in both the CBI and ED cases, Michel had said he was not required for the purpose of probe and expressed his willingness to cooperate with the probe. The applications also said the accused had never sought to evade the process of law, and that no purpose would be served by keeping him in further custody.
Michel was extradited from Dubai in December 2018 and subsequently arrested by the two investigating agencies. The CBI, in its charge sheet, has alleged an estimated loss of 398.21 million euros (about Rs 2,666 crore) to the exchequer due to the deal that was signed on February 8, 2010, for the supply of VVIP choppers worth 556.262 million euros.
The ED, in its charge sheet filed against Michel in June 2016, had alleged that he had received 30 million euros (about Rs 225 crore) from AgustaWestland. Michel is among the three alleged middlemen being probed in the case. The other two are Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa.
More About The Case
The case pertains to alleged bribery to swing a deal to procure 12 VVIP helicopters in favor of AgustaWestland which was ineligible as its helicopters did not meet the 6,000-meter operational ceiling parameter set by the Indian Air Force. The need for new helicopters to ferry VVIPs — the president, the prime minister, the vice president, and the defence minister — was felt in 1999 when a proposal was moved to find an alternative to the IAF’s Soviet-era Mi8s.
The CBI has accused then IAF Chief S P Tyagi of recommending a reduction in the operational ceiling of the helicopters from 6,000 meters to 4,500 meters which brought AgustaWestland into the race, the CBI has alleged. The IAF was strongly opposed to the changes but when Tyagi became the chief, he recommended it, the agency has alleged.
This, according to the CBI, was allegedly done at the behest of Finmeccanica and AgustaWestland top executives who engaged the services of three middlemen — Christian 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 firms received about 42.27 million Euros, approximately seven per cent of the deal amount, from the companies to swing the Rs 3,600-crore deal in their favour.
The bribes were allegedly routed through companies of Michel and an advocate, Gautam Khaitan, in the form of multiple contracts through layered transactions to camouflage them. The first charge sheet in the case was filed in September 2017 naming former IAF chief Tyagi and others. It was followed by another charge sheet in September 2020 against Michel and others.
(with inputs from PTI)
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