One of former Indian Air Force chief SP Tyagi’s cousins, Sanjeev Tyagi, who was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the Rs 3,600-crore VVIP helicopter scam, admitted on Friday to have been involved in financial and property dealings with European middlemen Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke, the CBI said on Friday. “But when asked about details, he did not give proper details and remained evasive during questioning on some crucial questions,” a CBI official said.

Sandeep Tyagi and Rajeev Tyagi, two other cousins of the IAF chief implicated in the AgustaWestland case, and Delhi-based lawyer Gautam Khaitan were also interrogated by the investigative agency for eight hours on Friday, PTI reported. CBI officials claimed Khaitan, who was a board member of Aeromatrix – one of the companies accused of allegedly receiving kickbacks in the chopper deal – “concealed” information related to his companies and AgustaWestland. Khaitan had earlier admitted to have received money from middlemen Gerosa and Haschke. SP Tyagi (pictured above), the prime accused in the case, had also admitted he had met senior officials of Finmeccanica, AgustaWestland’s parent company.

The AgustaWestland helicopter deal, which has snowballed into a huge controversy, relates to an agreement in 2010, when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government was to buy 12 helicopters from the British-Italian firm for around Rs 3,600 crore. The deal was put on hold after Italy arrested the head of Finmeccanica on charges that the company paid bribes to win the contract. CBI had registered a case against SP Tyagi and 13 others, including his three cousins and the European middlemen involved in the scam.