Machines And Machinations

How the deal to buy choppers for flying VVIPs landed an Air Force chief in police custody.

- R.Prasannan & Namrata Biji Ahuja

Air Chief Marshal (retd) S.P. Tyagi was spared a few blushes on December 4. He had wisely stayed away from the Navy Day reception. Gathered on the lawns of the Navy chief’s home were his former colleagues from all three services, chatting over tea and exchanging gossip. On the verandah overlooking the lawn was National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, who had driven in after ensuring that Christian James Michel, the alleged middleman in the 13,600-crore AgustaWestland deal, had been put on a Research and Analysis Wing special plane from Dubai to Delhi. Tyagi is an accused in the case over the deal.

Doval was hyperactive that evening. He was seen huddling with Minister of State for External Affairs Gen (retd) V.K. Singh and defence secretary Sanjay Mitra. The trio broke up only when President Ram Nath Kovind walked in.

Tyagi has shunned the social circuit since his arrest and bail two years ago. Once known to be talkative, he is choosy about the gatherings he attends these days. Queries from newsmen whom he has known from his service days are dismissed with a smile; others are ignored.

Tyagi has been protesting his innocence in court. He has told friends that he is under pressure from the CBI to name certain politicians, and that the agency had even offered to save him if he agreed. That is exactly what Michel, too, claimed in a Dubai court while fighting his extradition. “But I am soldier; I would rather suffer the ignominy than drag an innocent person’s name into this,” Tyagi is said to have told friends.

Tyagi’s case is that the BJP-led Union government is digging up a dead deal to trap political foes. The previous Congress-led government itself had cancelled the deal. There is no case now, goes his argument.