Indian officials will question alleged middleman Guido Hashcke next week in connection with the Rs 3,600 crore VVIP chopper procurement scam after an Italian court on Friday granted permission in this regard.
The case is being heard in Italy and Hashcke’s statement relating to his role in the chopper scam is being recorded by a Milan court. The Indian team, led by Defence Ministry official Upamanyu Chatterjee present there, was allowed to question the alleged middleman. The Defence Ministry sources said here Indian lawyer will question Hashcke on December 13 in the Italian court.
Hashcke has claimed that 6 million euros were paid to Air Force officials and 8.4 million euros to the bureaucracy. He also said that politicians were paid, according to agency reports from Italy. The reports said that the money was part of draft budget prepared by the middlemen on a paper for the deal in which Air Force has been written as ‘AF’ and politicians have been referred to as ‘pol.’ In the last hearing, Hashcke had said that he had met former IAF chief SP Tyagi six to seven times, while recounting his role in the scandal.
He further claimed that there was a plan to divide a commission of 7 per cent of the value of the contract for supply of helicopters to India with the three Tyagi brothers, cousins of then IAF chief SP Tyagi. The alleged middleman also recounted the various meetings at multiple locations between him and his accomplices in the whole episode in Rome and Dubai.
In the hearing, the crucial middleman, who was recently arrested by Italian authorities after being extradited by Swiss authorities, had said he had kept aside seven per cent of the deal as his share and for paying the three Tyagi cousins. He said the 50 per cent of the total money was to be paid to the other middleman Christian Michel and the money to be paid was to be routed through the engineering services contract as part of the deal.
The Defence Ministry is expected to scrap the deal for the 12 VVIP choppers after a probe pointed out that the Anglo-Italian firm violated the pre-contract integrity pact with India. AgustaWestland and the Tyagi brothers have denied any wrongdoing on their part in the deal.