CBI chief in Italy for Agusta deal probe

NEW DELHI: CBI director Ranjeet Sinha recently met the Indian ambassador in Italy in connection with its probe into alleged irregularities in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland helicopter deal.

Sinha, who was in Rome last week to attend a conference on human trafficking organized by London’s Metropolitan Police, held a meeting with Basant Kumar Gupta, Indian ambassador to Italy, and discussed ways to fast-track the probe, official sources said.

Sinha pressed for early execution of the agency’s judicial request (letters rogatory) to Italy seeking certain information on the accused and companies named in its FIR, sources said. Both discussed ways and means for better coordination with Italian authorities to secure crucial information sought by the agency in its judicial request, sources added.

Former IAF chief SP Tyagi and around a dozen others have been named in the FIR registered by CBI last year to probe the deal. Tyagi’s cousins — Sanjeev alias Julie, Rajeev alias Docsa, and Sandeep — European middlemen Carlo Gerosa, Christian Michel and Guido Haschke have also been named in the FIR as accused.

Top executives of Italian firm Finmeccanica and its UK-based subsidiary AgustaWestland are facing trial in Italy for alleged corruption in supply of 12 VVIP helicopters to India.