The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday claimed that former board member of Aeromatrix Gautam Khaitan has accepted taking payments from Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa, middlemen in the AgustaWestland deal, but rejected charges that it was part of any kickbacks.
“He has agreed taking payment from European middlemen Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa. However, we do not agree with the purpose behind the payment which has been cited by him,” CBI sources said.
Khaitan and former Deputy Air Chief NV Tyagi were examined by the CBI in connection with the AgustaWestland chopper deal, the sources said.
While the questioning of Khaitan continued for about 10 hours on Thursday, Tyagi left within four hours after recording his statement before the investigators.
The sources said while Khaitan accepted money was received from Gerosa and Haschke, he denied that it was part of kickbacks to clinch the deal. The agency sources said Tyagi cousins – Sandeep, Sanjeev, Rajeev – would be called again for questioning on Friday. The three brothers are named in the CBI FIR.
Khaitan, an advocate and a former Board member of company Aeromatrix, which was allegedly used to route bribe amount, is named in the CBI FIR as one of the accused. The focus of the questioning was his alleged links with Italian middlemen – Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschkhe, sources said.
The CBI had filed a case against former Air Chief SP Tyagi, along with 13 others, including his cousins and European middlemen. The allegation against the former Air Chief was that he reduced flying ceiling of the helicopter from 6,000m to 4,500m (15,000ft) which put AgustaWestland copters in the race for the deal without which its choppers were not even qualified for submission of bids.