Supreme Court to hear PIL against journalists for writing in favour of AgustaWestland deal
Supreme Court seeks responses from CBI and ED over claims that journalists were paid off to write in favour of the multi-crore VVIP chopper deal.
In Short
- PIL claims journalists received Rs 50 crore to write in favour of VVIP chopper deal.
- Former IAF chief SP Tyagi was earlier arrested by the CBI over alleged corruption.
- Government scrapped the Rs 3,600 deal in 2014.
After politicians and bureaucrats, even journalists have come under the scanner of the Supreme Court in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland deal. On Tuesday, the apex court agreed to hear a plea seeking an SIT probe against some journalists for allegedly writing in favour of the deal.
The Supreme Court has sought responses from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) on a PIL alleging that journalists were paid Rs 50 crore for writing in favour of the AgustaWestland deal.
Former Indian Air Force chief SP Tyagi and two others were arrested by the CBI on December 9 for alleged corruption in the VVIP chopper deal case.
Tyagi was the first chief of any wing of the armed forces to be arrested in India. Tyagi, his cousin Sanjeev Tyagi and a Delhi-based lawyer Gautam Khaitan were allegedly involved in irregularities in the procurement of 12 AW-101 VVIP helicopters from the Britain-based AgustaWestland.
However, Tyagi, who retired in 2007, was granted bail on December 26 by Delhi's Patiala House court.
On January 1, 2014, India had scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of the company paying kickbacks of Rs 423 crore for securing the deal.
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