As IAF chief, S P Tyagi met Agusta executives with his cousins: Italian Court

In fact, the court order also says that the Tyagi brothers, Sanjeev Kumar (Juli), Docsa and Sandeep, cousins of S P Tyagi, knew as early as November 2003 — before S P Tyagi became chief on December 31, 2004 — that the Defence Ministry would lower the altitude requirements for the helicopters it was planning to purchase for VVIPs.

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They shared this information with middleman Guido Haschke, the court says, who communicated it to AW officials, particularly Guiseppe Orsi, the former CEO of parent company Finmeccanica.

“I got the preliminary information from the Tyagi family that the flying ceiling for the helicopter would be lowered; that in the tender offer, the altitude ceiling would be reduced,” Haschke is quoted as saying on Page 209 of the Milan Appellate Court’s April 7 judgment.

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The court held Orsi and Bruno Spagnolini, former AW CEO, guilty of fraud and international corruption, sentencing them to four and a half and four years of prison respectively along with heavy fines.

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It emerges, from court records, that S P Tyagi met with AW executives in Delhi between January 22-25, 2006, while he was still Air Chief. Again, in January 2007, he met Bruno Spagnolini, Haschke and his associate middleman Carlo Gerosa, both times in the company of his cousins. Tyagi was IAF chief until March 31, 2007.

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At the end of 2004, before Tyagi assumed office, Juli Tyagi, according to the court order, made a “proposal” to Haschke. Of information and help against a fee. The sum agreed, as per the order, was 10.5 million Euros. Of which, Haschke claims, 3 million Euros was paid. The Tyagi brothers received 100,000 Euros in cash “immediately”.

Consider the following exchange as mentioned in the verdict (translated by this reporter):

Public Prosecutor to Haschke: “From whom did you learn that the “quota operativa” (Operation Rules) had been lowered?”

Haschke: “I got this first information from the Tyagi family who informed me that the altitude ceiling would be lowered and that in the tender document it would be lowered.”

Prosecutor: “And did you transmit this information to someone in Finmeccanica/Agustawestland?

Haschke: “Of course, certainly. I first transmitted it to Zappa (Giorgio Zappa the former Director General of Finmeccanica) and later, when I had been introduced to AgustaWestland. I don’t remember if I discussed this with Signor Orsi but I certainly did with engineer Lunardi.”

On page 210 of the verdict, the Prosecutor asks Haschke: “When did you first manage to meet Orsi?”

Haschke: “I do not remember exactly but it could have been around 20 October (2003).”

Prosecutor: “And when you met him what was the status of the tender offering?”

Haschke: “When I met him the tender offering (with the lowered altitude ceiling) had not been made public. I remember that well.”

The possibility of lowering the flying ceiling of the helicopters, since a single vendor situation had arisen, was raised at a meeting at the PMO on November 19, 2003. Besides the PMO, representatives of the Air HQ and the Special Protection Group (SPG) also attended the meeting.

On page 45 of its judgment, the court observes: “The failure of the first ‘Request for proposal’ (which resulted in a single vendor situation) gave rise to long discussions within the government organs concerned and on the eventual necessity of modifying the flight specifications (velivoli) and therefore the tender notice. The factual chronology reveals that the formulation of a new tender was developed and perfected in the period when Air Chief Marshal Tyagi was the head of the Indian Air Force”.

On page 55, the court states: Haschke recounts that towards the end of 2004, one of the Tyagi brothers, Juli, proposed himself and his family as intermediaries for the contract for helicopters that the Ministry of Defence is planning to float.

On page 57, Haschke tells the court that Juli Tyagi asked him and his associate Carlo Gerosa if they had contacts in the helicopter industry — EADS for the Eurocopter. “I told him that we did not know people in EADS but that we had a contact in Finmeccanica through Engineer Zampini who was the chief of one of the group’s companies Ansaldo Energia. Obviously, his interest was to represent one of these manufacturers in India and therefore to obtain payment as a consultant.”

Consider the following exchange as per the court order. (Page 57)

Prosecutor: “At what moment did they (Juli and Gerosa) tell you that their cousin was on the point of becoming or had become the head of the Indian Air Force?”

Haschke: “Towards the end of 2004 maybe.”

Prosecutor: “At what point did the Tyagi brothers underline that their cousin had become the chief in the sense that you could count on him?”

Haschke: “They told me. Not explicitly but they gave me to understand that as a member of the family, he would”.

The judge later remarks that “the family especially with the ‘cousin’ was available to those who wished to bid for the tender to act as facilitators in the awarding of the contract.”

Despite repeated calls and text messages, S P Tyagi was not available for comment.

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