Delhi-based lawyer Gautam Khaitan has told the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that he had received money from both the alleged middlemen involved in the ₹3,600 crore-AgustaWestland chopper scam.
Khaitan, who was interrogated by the CBI for the second day on Thursday, informed the agency that he had taken money from both the Italian agents — Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschkhe. However, the CBI is yet to ascertain the money trail between them, sources said.
On Wednesday, Khaitan had told the CBI that he was instrumental in establishing a shell company – IDS Tunisia, which is a subsidiary of IDS India that was named in the original FIR in this case. The money was transferred from Tunisia to Mauritius and then to other countries before finally landing in India.
The CBI has now asked all the three cousins of former Air Chief SP Tyagi to appear before it for further questioning on Friday.
Meanwhile, Tyagi was interrogated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday. After his questioning, the ED asked the Income Tax department, financial intelligence unit and the Ministry of Defence to give it details of the 10 officials accused in the AgustaWestland chopper scandal, in an effort to ascertain the alleged kickbacks received by them.
According to sources, the ED has asked for property and bank details of these officials, including both working as well as retired, from the Defence Ministry and Indian Air Force and were supposedly involved in the bidding and selection process of the VVIP choppers.
MEA pushes for LRsMeanwhile, the Ministry of External Affairs has asked its mission to push for the Letters of Rogatory (LRs) or judicial requests.
“We have received a communication in this regard from the CBI seeking an update on the execution reports of the LRs that were sent earlier to eight countries. We have once again written to our missions in the concerned countries from where the execution reports are pending in order to impress upon them the need to expeditiously execute the LRs and to send their corresponding execution reports at the earliest,” said Vikas Swarup, Spokesperson, MEA.
Responses are awaited from UAE, Singapore, Switzerland, Mauritius, British Virgin Islands, UK and Tunisia.