AgustaWestland case: Delhi court grants bail to four former IAF officers

A Delhi court on Saturday granted bail to four former IAF officials allegedly involved in the AgustaWestland chopper scam. All four, alongside former Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma, had featured in a supplementary charge sheet the central agency filed back in March this year.

New Delhi:A CBI court in Delhi on Saturday granted bail to four former Indian Air Force officers in the AgustaWestland chopper procurement case. The four have been identified as former Air Force AVM JS Panesar, retired air commodore N Santosh, retired Air Commodore SA Kunte, and former Wing Commander Thomas Mathew. All four had featured in the supplementary charge sheet filed by the central agency. Further hearing on the matter will take place on August 27.

On July 18, the court served summons to all four after permitting the CBI to prosecute them, agreeing to a prosecution sanction the agency sought on September 19, 2020. The supplementary charge sheet also featured Shashi Kant Sharma, former joint secretary in the Defence Ministry, who was serving when the issue first came to light. He was also the Comptroller and Auditor General of India between 2013 and 2017.

Sharma was granted bail by a special court in April this year. Suspected to be one among many behind the Rs 3,600 crore chopper scam, others allegedly involved in the case are Christian Michael, Rajiv Saxena, AgustaWestland International Director G Saponaro and Sandeep Tyagi, a relative of IAF chief SP Tyagi.