Coming out in support of former IAF chief SP Tyagi who was recently arrested and then released on bail in connection with the AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter scam, IAF chief Arup Raha said on Wednesday that Tyagi is a part of an “extended family” and the service would stand by him. However, he clarified that if proven guilty, then there will no sympathy for him.
Tyagi was arrested earlier this month by the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) on charges of receiving kickbacks in the Rs3,600 crore deal to buy 12 AgustaWestland helicopters for ferrying VVIPs.
Asked to comment on this episode, Raha said “the former Air Force Chief is like an extended family member and we should stand by him. If charges are proven, we have no sympathy for him,” he said while addressing his last Press conference before retiring on December 31.
As regards corruption in defence deals, Raha said multiple agencies are involved in the procurement process and no one can pin the blame on one particular organisation or service. He also lamented that despite probes into the alleged scams over the decades like Bofors, not much could be achieved by the investigating agencies to bring to justice people involved in corrupt practices.
“If these corruption charges are proved, it is bad for the armed forces, or whoever is involved. It is not just the armed forces who are involved in the procurement,” he said.
Maintaining that the IAF adhered to strict standards regarding procurement, Raha said well trained professionals including pilots and test pilots deal with acquisition or procurements. He stressed that the air force professionals were dealing with the subject very diligently and professionally.
“And wherever we have to exercise our specialist skills to give an opinion, we do it very diligently. We have a lot of mechanisms to review each and every procurement that we do. There are many stages of oversight,” he said.