CBI to send Tunisia, Mauritius reminders

The CBI is all set to send fresh reminders to the authorities concerned in Tunisia and Mauritius for early execution of its pending judicial requests pertaining to the multi-crore AgustaWestland helicopter deal case.

Sources said, “The agency has sought details about certain private firms based in Tunisia and Mauritius in its judicial requests or letters rogatory (LRs) sent to these countries. Investigations by the agency has established that three suspects in the case allegedly received 126,000 euros and 200,000 euros in 2005 routed through Tunisia and Mauritius.” Sources said fresh reminders to the concerned authorities will be sent in a day or two.

The LR is a judicial request issued by a competent court to a foreign court and processed by the MEA on behalf of the investigative agencies to obtain information about individuals and entities.

The agency on March 13, 2013 had booked former IAF Chief SP Tyagi and 12 others under charges of bribery, cheating and corruption in the VVIP chopper deal. The former Air Chief, his cousins—Sanjeev alias Julie, Rajeev alias Docsa and Sandeep, European middlemen Carlo Gerosa, Christian Michel and Guido Haschke were among 13 individuals named in the FIR as accused. Six companies including Italy-based Finmeccanica, AgustaWestland, Mohali-based IDS Infotech, Chandigarh-based Aeromatrix, IDS Tunisia and IDS Mauritius had also been booked by the CBI in its FIR.

“It has been found that during the tenure of Tyagi, the Air Force conceded to reduce the service ceiling for VVIP helicopters to 4500 meters as mandatory ‘operational requirement’ (OR). Earlier the IAF was opposing it vehemently on the grounds of security constraints and other related issues”, sources said. The air headquarters in April 2004 had reached a clear decision that AugustaWestland was not an option as VVIP helicopters due to its failure in meeting the service ceiling mandatory OR, they added.