VVIP chopper deal case: Court issues Letter Rogatory to Mauritius to assist CBI

New Delhi: A special court on Wednesday issued a Letter Rogatory (LR) to the competent authority in Mauritius to assist the CBI in its probe into the Rs 3,600 crore VVIP chopper deal case. [caption id=“attachment_2459172” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] Special CBI Judge Ajay Kumar Jain allowed the plea filed by the agency, seeking issuance of LR (a letter of formal request from a court to a foreign court) to Mauritius for assistance in its probe and collection of documents relating to the case. The court on 24 September had issued an open non-bailable warrant against British national Christian Michel James, an accused in the case who is absconding, after the CBI said he was required for questioning to ascertain crucial aspects in the matter. Former IAF chief SP Tyagi, his cousins - Sanjeev alias Julie, Rajeev alias Docsa and Sandeep, European middlemen Carlo Gerosa, Christian Michel James and Guido Haschke are among 13 individuals named as accused in the CBI FIR. CBI, in its FIR, has booked all the accused under the provisions of IPC relating to cheating and criminal conspiracyand under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. In its FIR, CBI has alleged that during his tenure as the Air Chief, Tyagi, and “with his approval”, the Air Force had “conceded to reduce the service ceiling for VVIP helicopters from 6000 metres to 4500 metres as mandatory”, which it was opposing vehemently on the grounds of security constraints and other reasons. It had claimed that the reduction of service ceiling - the maximum height at which a helicopter can perform normally - had allowed UK-based AgustaWestland to get into the fray as, otherwise its choppers were not qualified for submission of bids. CBI had also alleged that AgustaWestland managed to introduce a comparative flight trial with non-functional engine and eventually succeeded in getting the contract for supply of 12 AW-101 VVIP helicopters from the Defence Ministry, mainly due to softening of the IAF on the service ceiling issue after Tyagi took over as its chief. Two new names, which were not part of the agency’s preliminary enquiry, have also been included in the FIR. They are Satish Bagrodia and Pratap Kishan Aggarwal, CBI had said. Six companies including Italy-based Finmeccanica, AgustaWestland, Mohali-based IDS Infotech, Aeromatrix, IDS Tunisia and IDS Mauritius have been booked by CBI in its FIR. Aeromatrix CEO Praveen Bakshi, former Finmeccanica Chairman Giuseppe Orsi, former AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini and legal advisor and former board member of IDS Infotech Gautam Khaitan are also named as accused. All the accused have denied the CBI’s allegations against them. PTI