CBI gets AgustaWestland phone call transcripts

Italian authorities have handed over to CBI transcripts of telephone conversations intercepted by them in the VVIP helicopter scam, a move which may help the agency in expediting its probe in the case.
CBI sources said a CD has been given to the officials of Indian Mission in Milan which contains some of the transcripts of the conversations which were intercepted by Italian agencies during their probe into the scam.
They said these transcripts are in Italian and agency is getting them translated for its own probe here.
The transcripts would help CBI carry forward its probe in the Rs 362 crore bribery scandal in which the then Indian Air Force chief S P Tyagi is also an accused, the sources said.

The records are crucial to the CBI probe as they reportedly contain several conversations related to the alleged remittances made to cousins of Tyagi and other middlemen to clinch the deal, they said.
The sources also said a set of over 40,000 documents related to contours of money trail has already been received by the CBI from the Italian court after Defence Ministry became a civil party in the ongoing case in the European country.

With the help of phone intercepts, the agency wants to corroborate claims made in these conversations with the details of actual fund transfers to bolster its evidence against the accused in the chopper scam.

The sources said the phone conversations were tapped by Italian authorities who have quoted them in their preliminary enquiry report on the basis of which they have started probe investigations into the alleged involvement of Italian company Finmeccanica, its UK-based subsidiary AgustaWestland and their top executives.
The Italian prosecutor, who carried out the preliminary enquiry, alleged that the CEO of Finmeccanica, parent company of UK-based AgustaWestland, had used services of middlemen to bribe Indian officials in India.