Choppergate: CBI gets fresh documents from Italy

CBI has received a fresh tranche of documents from Italian authorities in the AgustaWestland chopper bribery scandal allegedly involving former IAF chief SP Tyagi which is under probe of the agency.

CBI has received a fresh tranche of documents from Italian authorities in the AgustaWestland chopper bribery scandal allegedly involving former IAF chief SP Tyagi which is under probe of the agency.

The sources said CBI is also expecting to get complete copies of transcripts of phone conversations of middlemen, which were intercepted by Italian agencies, during the next hearing of the case which is scheduled on September 17 in Milan.

Without revealing contents of the fresh set of documents, the sources said the agency will study them and see how they would buttress agency's case.

The sources said a set of over 40,000 documents related to contours of money trail has already been received by CBI from the Italian court after the defence ministry became a party in the ongoing case in the European country.

Complete set of phone transcripts are still awaited by the agency and once CBI get these records, it might question Tyagi and other accused again before starting to prepare the charge sheet against the accused, the sources said.

CBI, which carried out probe in India, had named 13 individuals, including Tyagi and European nationals Carlo Gerosa, Christian Michel and Guido Haschke, in the FIR as accused, in connection with the bribery case.

Italian agencies had arrested the then CEO of AgustaWestland Giuseppe Orsi for alleged bribe given to Indian middlemen to clinch the deal.

The supply of 12 VVIP helicopters from AgustaWestland had come under the scanner after Italian authorities alleged bribe money was given by the company to clinch the deal.

The Italian prosecutor, who carried out the preliminary inquiry, alleged the CEO of Finmeccanica, the parent company of UK-based AgustaWestland, had used the services of middlemen to bribe Indian officials in India.