Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
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Agency is trying to establish money trail of alleged bribes in copter deal case The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday confronted Christian James Michel, an alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter deal case, with a series of documents obtained from Italy and those gathered as part of the probe since 2013. The agency said it had received a request from the British High Commission, through the Ministry of External Affairs, for consular access to Mr. Michel. He was produced in a city court that sent him to five-day CBI custody on Wednesday. Papers from Italy The CBI had got the deal papers, running into more than 1.5 lakh pages, from Italy through the Defence Ministry.
They revealed that Mr. Michel allegedly entered into various agreements with AgustaWestland and related entities to help clinch the contract for supply of 12 helicopters. “The first priority is to get the papers linked to Mr. Michel corroborated through him, which will take some time,” said an official. The CBI may then summon the other accused persons and witnesses to confront them with Mr. Michel for verification of facts pertaining to the alleged bribe money trail. Former Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi’s cousin Sanjeev Tyagi figures in the list of those allegedly in touch with Mr. Michel, as indicated by a witness who was his driver.
The Enforcement Directorate has alleged that the Tyagi cousins and their companies received €1.05 million from AgustaWestland-U.K. through the other two middlemen, Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke. The payments were made via their Tunisia-based firms Gordian Services Sarl and IDS Tunisia largely in the form of consultancy charges.
