Copter deal: CBI receives more papers from MoD

The CBI, probing the Rs 3,600-crore Agusta-Westland helicopter deal, has received from the defence ministry more documents related to the deal, including showcause notices issued to the firms made accused by the agency in the case. Sources said the defence ministry had issued the notices to Italy-based Finmeccanica and UK-based AgustaWestland after their names had surfaced during the preliminary enquiry conducted by the CBI in connection with the alleged payoffs in the copter deal. Sources further said that a meeting was recently held with the officials of the defence ministry wherein the showcause notices and the response from AgustaWestland were handed over to the CBI sleuths. The ministry had asked the firm why the deal should not be cancelled in view of corruption charges against it. “The firm had replied to the letter denying any wrongdoing in the deal but Defence Minister A K Antony had rejected the response of the company. Reply of the company has also been handed over to the CBI”, sources said. They said agency is also working on information it requires from abroad to buttress its bribery allegations against Finmeccan-ica and AgustaWestland besides middlemen involved in making these alleged payoffs to cousins of former Air Chief S.P. Tyagi and other individuals. After finalising, the agency will dispatch its query in the form of judicial requests, to four countries — the UK, Italy, Mauritius and Tunisia — to track the money trail through which funds were brought into India to facilitate the bribe payment, sources said. The agency is also scrutinising documents related to circumstances under which the Air force headquarters had recommended AW-101 choppers by AgustaWestland, finding it to be fully compliant with all requirements, in April 2008, sources said.