Chopperdeal: Court to hear plea for LR to Mauritius on Oct 7

CBI's application seeking issuance of Letter Rogatory (LR) to the competent authority in Mauritius for assistance in probe and collection of documents relating to the Rs 3,600 crore VVIP chopper deal case would come up for consideration before a Delhi court next week.
Special CBI Judge Ajay Kumar Jain, which had earlier fixed today for consideration of the CBI's plea, deferred the hearing after CBI's prosecutor sought some time to go through the files.
"At his (prosecutor) request, put up the pending application for issuance of letter rogatory for consideration for October 7," the court said.
The court had on September 24 issued an open non-bailable warrant against British national Christian Michel James, an accused in the case, after CBI said he was required for questioning to ascertain crucial aspects in the matter.

Former IAF chief S P Tyagi, his cousins -- Sanjeev alias Julie, Rajeev alias Docsa and Sandeep, European middlemen Carlo Gerosa, Christian Michel James and Guido Haschke are among 13 individuals named as accused in the CBI FIR.
CBI, in its FIR, has booked all the accused under the provisions of IPC relating to cheating and criminal conspiracy and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
In its FIR, CBI has alleged that during his tenure as the Air Chief, Tyagi and "with his approval", the Air Force had "conceded to reduce the service ceiling for VVIP helicopters from 6000 metres to 4500 metres as mandatory", which it was opposing vehemently on the grounds of security constraints and other related reasons.

It had claimed that the reduction of service ceiling -- maximum height at which a helicopter can perform normally -- had allowed UK-based AgustaWestland to get into the fray as, otherwise its choppers were not qualified for submission of bids.