Gautam Khaitan Admits to Taking Money in Agusta Deal, Say Sources

New Delhi: Former board member of Aeromatrix Gautam Khaitan has allegedly admitted to having received payments from middlemen Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschkhe in the AgustaWestland chopper deal, sources said on Thursday.

The revelation came on the second day of questioning by the Central Bureau of Investigation. The investigating agency claimed that they are not satisfied with Khaitan's answers regarding payments.

Khaitan and former Deputy Air Chief NV Tyagi were examined by CBI in connection with AgustaWestland chopper deal, the sources said.

While the questioning of Khaitan continued for about 10 hours, Tyagi left within four hours after recording his statement before the investigators.

The agency sources said Tyagi cousins -- Sandeep, Sanjeev, Rajeev -- will be called on Friday for questioning. The three brothers are named in the CBI FIR.

Sources had on Wednesday claimed that Khaitan during his questioning admitted setting up IDS Tunisia.

IDS Tunisia is a subsidiary of IDS India. The company was one among the many through which the alleged bribe was routed by the middlemen from Agusta Westland to other countries, the sources said.

Khaitan, who is 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, the sources said.

CBI had registered a case against 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 helicopters in the race for the deal without which its choppers were not even qualified for submission of bids.

Tyagi has denied allegations against him and said the change of specifications, which brought AgustaWestland into contention, was a collective decision in which senior officers of Indian Air Force, SPG and other departments were involved.