India ex-air force chief faces probe

Italian helicopter deal

NEW DELHI, Feb 26, (AFP): Indian police said Monday they would probe a former Indian air force chief and 10 others over a $748 million contract for 12 Italian helicopters amid charges that the deal was won through kickbacks.

A senior police official said that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed a “preliminary enquiry” report which also links four companies to the alleged scandal.

Former air chief marshal “S.P. Tyagi and his cousins were names mentioned in the report”, the official said, without elaborating.

“If criminality is established, then the next step would be to register a case against the 11 and the four companies,” the police official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The Press Trust of India and India’s Hindustan Times newspaper also said Tyagi, who has strongly denied any wrongdoing, was listed in the CBI report as one of the 11 people to be probed.

India’s defence ministry earlier this month said it had “initiated action for cancellation” of the helicopter contract from AgustaWestland, a unit of Italian aerospace group Finmeccanica, intended for use by top Indian politicians.

India on Feb 14 put payments to the company on hold and asked the Italian firm to reply if any terms of the contract and an “integrity pact” it signed in 2010 had been violated.