New Delhi: Former Chief of Air Staff SP Tyagi has accepted he met Finmeccanica officials, including the then chief operating officer Georgio Zapa, sources close to the investigation in the VVIP chopper scam claimed on Tuesday.
Sources told CNN-News18 that Tyagi met the top Finmeccanica official on February 15, 2015 when he was still in office. Finmeccanica is the parent company of AgustaWestland with whom India negotiated a purchase of choppers to ferry VVIPs.
Significantly, the change in altitude ceiling specifications which reportedly helped AW clinch the deal, happened a month later in an NSA meeting in March.
It should be mentioned here that admission of meeting the Finmeccanica officials is not by itself enough to presume any guilt on the part of the former IAF chief.
Sources said Tyagi was evasive with probe officials a day earlier, and that he admitted to the meeting only after being confronted with his vistor's diary.
Officials of CBI, which is probing the scam, are now trying to get details on his international travels, especially in the years after he retired, to check who financed them.
Tyagi has also allegedly admitted to having financial interest in four Noida-based companies - Vanshi, Anuras, Shawan and Meghanshu.
The former IAF chief was grilled by the CBI for the second day in connection with the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland chopper deal. Recently, the Milan Court of Appeals in Italy had concluded that bribes were paid to Indians to clinch the deal.
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