UPA a govt of scamsters: BJP on AgustaWestland

The Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) on Saturday said the previous United Progressive Alliance(UPA) regime was a government of scams and scamsters working with a motivation to earn illicit money.

"The UPA government of the last 10 years was a government of scams and scamsters. It is evident that they have done number of transactions deals with a motivation to make money through unfair means. It was clear in the case of the Augusta Westland deal. The Italian court has given a verdict, and in the annexure, they have mentioned a few names," BJP spokesperson Zafar Islam told ANI here.

"SP Tyagi was the chief architect of the transactions. CBI is doing an investigation, so, let them do their job. The government doesn't interfere in the working of the CBI. Those who are responsible for accepting kickbags will definitely be brought to book," he added.

The CBI will produce former air force chief S P Tyagi before a court today and seek his remand in connection with the Agusta Westland helicopter deal case.

Delhi based lawyer Gautam Khaitan and another person namely Sanjeev Tyagi have also been arrested in connection with the case.

The deal is related to the purchase of twelve helicopters for VVIPs from Italian manufacturer, Finmeccanica in 2010 during UPA-2 government's rule.

Tyagi, 71, who retired in 2007, was called for questioning to the CBI headquarters along with Khaitan and Sanjeev Tyagi.

These are the first arrests in the case being probed by the CBI which came after it registered a case FIR in 2013.

CBI spokesperson Devpreet Singh, said, "It was alleged that the Chief of Air Staff entered into a criminal conspiracy with the other accused persons. She said that the former air force chief has conceded to changing the IAF's consistent stand and reducing the service ceiling of VVIP helicopters to 4500 meters."

She said such changes in operational requirements made the private company based at the UK (AgustaWestland) eligible to participate in the Request for Proposal for VVIP helicopters.

Singh said the arrested accused persons will be produced before the competent court tomorrow where their remand would be sought.