Not satisfied with the statements given by some suspects, including cousins of former Indian Air Force Chief S.P. Tyagi, in the multi-crore AgustaWestland helicopter deal case, the CBI is now contemplating subjecting them to “lie-detection test”. The agency, sources said, will soon approach the competent court in this regard.
“Some suspects remained evasive during the questioning by agency sleuths. Now, the CBI is planning to conduct lie-detection tests on certain suspects to get leads pertaining to the money trail in the case,” sources said.
The CBI on March 13, 2013, had booked the former IAF Chief and 12 others under charges of bribery, cheating and corruption in the VVIP copter deal.
The former Air Chief, his cousins — Sanjeev alias Julie, Rajeev alias Docsa and Sandeep — as well as European middlemen Carlo Gerosa, Christian Michel and Guido Haschke were among 13 individuals named in the FIR as accused.
Six companies including Italy-based Finmecca-nica, AgustaWestland, Mohali-based IDS Infotech, Chandigarh-based Aeromatrix, IDS Tunisia and IDS Mauritius had also been booked by the CBI in its FIR.
The allegation against the former Air Chief was that he reduced the flying ceiling of the helicopter from 6,000 metres to 4,500 metres, which put AgustaWestland helicopters in the race for the deal for which its choppers would not have been eligible had the flying ceilings not been altered.
The CBI recently examined cousins Sanjeev, Rajeev and Sandeep at the its headquarters here. The agency also questioned Gautam Khaitan, a Delhi-based lawyer and an accused in the case.
“Sanjeev Tyagi, during interrogation did not deny his relations with European middlemen Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa and maintained that he knew them five to six years before the order was placed,” sources said.
He said that the payments received by him were for power sector jobs which were all received through proper banking channels with income tax paid on them. He claimed that payments received from middlemen were not for helicopter deal but for some power sector job”, sources said. However, investigations by the agency has established that three suspects in the case allegedly received Euro 1,26,000 and Euro 2,00,000 in 2005 routed through Tunisia and Mauritius, they added.
