ED asks IAF to clarify on cooling- off period
The Enforcement Directorate, which is probing the multi- crore VVIP copter deal, has sought clarification from the Air Force about the “cooling- off ” period for retired IAF officials to take- up jobs after retirement. Investigations by the ED have revealed that certain former IAF officials joined private firms, which are under the scanner of the agency in connection with the case, immediately after their retirement without completing the mandatory cooling- off period from the date of their retirement.
Sources said, “It is suspected that a former IAF official of the acquisition wing joined a private firm without completing the mandatory cooling- off period from the date of his retirement. His role is being probed by the agency in connection with the case”. The former IAF official was recently questioned by the ED and his statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act ( PMLA).
The agency had detected that the retired IAF official had got some funds allegedly from European middlemen and an accused in the case Christian Michel James.
The amount under suspicion is to the tune of ` 80 lakh. The agency had tracked these payments being made by Michel to the former IAF official. The agency sleuths also suspect that the money received in a private con- sultancy firm floated by the former IAF officer had links to kickbacks paid by the Italian firm to crack the ` 3,600- crore deal. “We have sought clarification from the IAF about the cooling- off period for retired IAF officials to take- up jobs after retirement”, sources said. The ED is also preparing to examine a senior bureaucrat of the AGMU cadre as part of its investigations into the copter deal.
Sources said investigations by the agency have revealed that the public servant was allegedly in touch with Christian Michel James. The ED in July 2014 had booked Air Chief Marshal S. P. Tyagi ( Retd), former Chief of Air Staff, and 12 others under the stringent provisions of the PMLA in the VVIP helicopter deal case.