AgustaWestland: After MoD, IAF says no records on deal

The defence ministry and the Indian Air Force (IAF) — the two primary holders of information on the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland deal — have claimed that they do not have any records on the scrapped VVIP chopper deal with AgustaWestland.

The Indian Air Force headquarters in a recent reply to an RTI query said: “The information sought via your RTI application is not available at this HQ.”

The CBI, which is probing the case, had collected many records during its investigation, but as per norms, copies of necessary documents were left with the concerned ministry or the department from where they had been collected.

Under the RTI Act, an application was filed with the defence ministry, seeking complete records related to the 2010 deal, including price negotiations, file notings, information on the price negotiation committee meetings, initials estimates of the copters, besides additions sought in the helicopters which increased the cost, and deliberations which allowed lowering of flight ceiling and cabin height.

The MoD had transferred the application to the IAF on June 16, asking the latter to furnish the information. An application is transferred when the public authority does not have any or a part of information sought by the RTI applicant.

Surprisingly, on May 6, defence minister Manohar Parrikar referred to several details of the deal during a Lok Sabha debate on the issue.

The CBI had registered a case against former IAF Chief S.P. Tyagi, along with 13 others, including his cousins and European middlemen, in connection with the alleged bribery scam.

Mr Tyagi is accused of reducing the flying ceiling of helicopters from 6,000 m to 4,500 m which facilitated AgustaWestland to be in contention for the deal. Otherwise the company did not qualify for submission of bids.

Mr Tyagi claimed the change of specifications was a collective decision in which senior officers of IAF, SPG, NSA and other departments were involved.