New Delhi: A part of the kickbacks allegedly paid in the AgustaWestand deal was returned back through a maze of shell companies based in Mauritius and Tunisia as foreign direct investment (FDI) , the Economic Times reported.
A web of companies that was set up to route Rs 37 crore to Indian entities as a part of the Rs 160 crore that AgustaWestland allegedly paid to middlemen," Enforcement Directorate officials told ET.
However, a large chunk of the Rs 160 crore that the Milan Court of Appeals said was allegedly paid to middleman Guido Haschke remains untraced.
There is no clarity on where the remaining Rs 123 crore disappeared after going into a Tunisian bank account. All this has been detailed in the charge sheet filed by ED in November 2014 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Delhi-based lawyer Gautam Khaitan that ET has seen and which has not been widely reported previously.
ED has alleged that the lawyer was instrumental in setting up companies on behalf of Italian middlemen Guido Hashke and Carlo Gerosa.
An inquiry team, consisting of two CBI officials and one ED official, is travelling to Italy with an intention of gathering more evidence on the three middlemen who allegedly bribed several Indians, including politicians.
CBI, on Saturday, quizzed former IAF deputy chief JS Gujral for over eight hours in the case. He will be called again for questioning.
The controversial deal to buy 12 choppers for VVIPs and the alleged bribes paid in clinching it have triggered a political storm after an Italian court "cited handwritten references" to Sonia Gandhi, her political secretary Ahmed Patel and former Air Chief SP Tyagi by a middleman in a judgement that convicted the helicopter company's chief executive.
