New Delhi: CBI has received from the Defence Ministry more documents relating to show cause notices issued by it to the firms made accused by the agency for alleged kickbacks paid by them to clinch 12 VVIP helicopter deal in their favour.
CBI also plans to start questioning of the accused soon.
CBI sources said the Defence Ministry has issued the notices to Italy-based Finmeccanica and UK-based AgustaWestland after their names had surfaced during the preliminary enquiry conducted by the agency in connection with the alleged payoffs in the Rs 3600-crore deal.
They said a meeting was recently held with the officials of the Defence Ministry wherein the show cause notices and the response from AgustaWestland were handed over to the agency.
The Ministry had asked the firm why the deal should not be cancelled in view of corruption charges against it.
The firm had replied to the letter denying any wrongdoing in the deal but Defence Minister A K Antony had rejected the response of the company.
The sources said Defence Ministry has provided all the documents related the deal which are part of scrutiny process and plans for sequence of questioning are being finalised.
They said agency is also working on information it requires from abroad to buttress its bribery allegations against Finmeccanica and AgustaWestland besides middlemen involved in making these alleged payoffs to cousins of former Air Chief S P Tyagi and other individuals.
After finalising, the agency is likely to dispatch its query in the form of judicial requests, also known as Letters Rogatory, to four countries--the UK, Italy, Mauritius and Tunisia--to track the money trail through which funds were brought into India to facilitate the bribe payment.
S P Tyagi was booked by CBI along with 12 others, for alleged cheating, corruption and criminal conspiracy in the deal and searches were carried out at 14 locations including his the former IAF chief`s residence.
PTI
