Close on the heels of questioning of Governors of West Bengal and Goa, CBI will soon record the statement of former Director, Intelligence Bureau and Governor of Andhra Pradesh ESl Narasimhan in connection with bribery scandal involving purchase of VVIP helicopters from Anglo-Italian firm Agusta Westland.
CBI sources said Narasimhan, along with then NSA M K Narayanan and then Chief of Special Protection Group (SPG) BV Wanchoo, attended the March 1, 2005 meeting where the decision to reduce service ceiling (maximum height at which a helicopter can operate) was taken, making AgustaWestland eligible for the deal.
Recently CBI team had quizzed West Bengal Governor MK Narayanan and Wanchoo who was Goa Governor as witnesses for its probe into allegations of bribery of `360 crore in the `3,600-crore VVIP chopper deal with AgustaWestland. The duo subsequently demitted office.
Wanchoo and Narayanan were questioned as both were instrumental in tweaking the technical parameters of the VVIP choppers. Since Narasimhan was also present in the meeting, his statement is also crucial to get additional inputs about the reasons for reducing service ceiling, sources said.
In its FIR, CBI has alleged reduction of the service ceiling allowed the UK-based firm to get into the fray as otherwise it was not even qualified for submission of bids.
Apart from reduction in the service ceiling from 6,000 metres to 4,500 metres flight evaluation tests were allegedly conducted in a manner that suited AgustaWestland.