While the retired Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi has become the first sitting or retired military chief to be arrested in the AgustaWestland bribery case, at least two retired chiefs had been named as accused in defence scandals in the past.
In both cases, the CBI ended up closing the cases years later, admitting lack of evidence.
“I hope the CBI has a watertight case and enough evidence for this. They must understand that Tyagi was not running away, and he was the chief of the Air Force,” said a former military chief, sharing the widespread surprise in military circles over the arrest. “In the past, whenever the CBI dragged retired chiefs into such scandals, they have failed even to file a charge sheet in court.”
HDW episode
Admiral (Retd) S.M. Nanda had to face raids in 1987, after the German firm HDW told the then Indian Ambassador to Germany about illegal commissions paid to middlemen in the sale of submarines to the Indian Navy.
Mr. Nanda, who led the Navy during the 1971 war, had always vehemently denied the allegations, though his involvement in various businesses in the defence sector were well known, especially through Crown Corporation, a company run by his family.
His son, Suresh Nanda, also a retired naval officer, has figured in the CBI’s “undesirable contact men” list for years now because of suspicion that he is an active middleman in arms deals.
However, almost 15 years after the HDW scandal emerged, the CBI admitted in Supreme Court that it had no evidence to prosecute Admiral Nanda, and filed a closure report in the trial court.
In October 2006, the CBI filed an FIR alleging irregularities in the purchase of Barak missile systems from Israel when Admiral Sushil Kumar was the Navy chief. The FIR alleged a criminal conspiracy, and based on Tehelka tapes, named people such as the then Defence Minister George Fernandes, Samata Party leader Jaya Jaitley and the party treasurer, R.K. Jain.
The CBI also added the name of Admiral Kumar, saying the indigenous Trishul project — an anti-missile system which was to be replaced by the Barak system — was ready when the Kargil conflict broke out.
The CBI case went on to say, based on claims by Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) officials and other sources, that Admiral Kumar played a role in procuring the Israeli system when the indigenous equipment was ready.
RTI battle
Over several years, Admiral Kumar filed repeated RTI petitions with various authorities, and proved that the CBI claim was wrong.
Despite repeated efforts to stall his applications, Admiral Kumar fought up to the Central Information Commission and forced the DRDO to part with details of the Trishul project. And when it emerged in public, the DRDO admitted that the “Trishul project (naval version) was sanctioned as a staff project in July 1983” and that it was converted to “technology demonstrator” in 2001. A staff project is meant for operational requirements of users, while a technology demonstrator is a mere lab experiment, according to DRDO classifications. In December 2013, the CBI filed a closure report in the case in a Delhi court.
