The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday continued the interrogation process of the Delhi lawyer Gautam Khaitan and others, in an effort to chalk out the entire money trail in the ₹3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam.
It also continued the questioning of Praveen Bakshi of IDS Infotech and Pratap Aggarwal, CEO, Aeromatrix, both of whom are being accused of routing the kickbacks from the chopper deal through their firms into India from abroad, according to CBI sources.
A senior CBI official also confirmed that the agency has not yet heard from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on its request for expediting the Letters of Rogatory (LRs) to five countries – UAE, Singapore, Switzerland, Mauritius and British Virgin Islands.
Former Air Force chief SP Tyagi might be also summoned next week, once the agency gets information on the financial links, CBI sources said. Khaitan, Bakshi and Aggarwal have been summoned on Thursday again.
The government through its order dated July 3, 2014 had put on hold all procurement cases in the pipeline of six companies figuring in the FIR registered by the CBI, namely: Agusta Westland International Ltd, UK; Finmeccanica, Italy, and its group companies, including subsidiaries and affiliates; IDS, Tunisia; Infotech Design System (IDS), Mauritius; IDS Infotech Ltd, Mohali; and Aeromatrix Info Solution Pvt Ltd, Chandigarh.