Lawyer denies role in defence deals

A day after The Indian Express reported an Italian investigation report into corruption allegations in the VVIP helicopter deal,lawyer Gautam Khaitan,who has been named as one of the persons being investigated,has said that he has no role in any defence deal and his contact with alleged middleman Guido Haschke was limited to being a legal counsel.

“I strongly deny all such allegations and insinuation of my having any direct/indirect involvement in any defence deals along with the alleged deal of VVIP helicopters. There is no question of any wrongdoing. I and my firm are acting as the lawyers for Aeromatrix for the limited purpose of helping the company with its statutory compliances in India and some other petty day-to-day matters,” Khaitan said.

Meanwhile,the Indian Air Force has said that it has no records that Sanjeev Kumar Tyagi,who has been identified as a former air force officer in the Italian police report,has ever served with it.

The Italian report,however,does name Tyagi as one of the three Indians whose names figure in the chargesheet and has records of his conversations and meetings with Haschke. The report names him as a former IAF pilot who is now a Delhi-based businessman.

Sources,however,indicate that Tyagi did join the air force academy and train to be a pilot but may not have been actually commissioned into the air force.

He is believed to be very close to several senior air force officers.