AgustaWestland Chopper Scam: Ex-Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma Gets Bail

Special Judge Arvind Kumar granted relief to Sharma on a personal bond of Rs two lakh, with one surety in the like amount, PTI reported.

An AgustaWestland AW189 helicopter flies over the Leonardo Helicopters factory on January 30, 2018, in Vergiate near Milan. (File Photo: AFP)

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday granted bail to former defence secretary Shashi Kant Sharma in connection with a case related to the AgustaWestland chopper scam.

Special Judge Arvind Kumar granted relief to Sharma on a personal bond of Rs two lakh, with one surety in the like amount, PTI reported.

This came after the former defence secretary appeared before the court in pursuance of the summons issued against him earlier.

The court noted the submission of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) counsel, who said that the agency had no objection if the accused was granted bail.

Appearing for the former defence secretary, the advocates told the court that he was innocent and was been falsely implicated in this case.

Earlier on April 11, the court had summoned Sharma while taking cognisance of a chargesheet filed by the CBI.

This development took place after the CBI submitted that the sanction to prosecute Sharma had been granted by the authorities concerned.

The CBI chargesheet also named retired Indian Air Force (IAF) officers Jasbir Singh Panesa, N Santosh, S A Kunte and Thomas Mathew.

The agency, however, said the requisite sanction to prosecute them is yet to be procured from the concerned authorities.

Earlier in September 2017, the first chargesheet was filed in the case naming former IAF chief SP Tyagi and others.

The CBI had earlier told the court that copies of classified/secret official documents of the IAF/Ministry of Defence (MoD) such as Operational Requirements for VVIP helicopters before issuance of Request of Proposal and other incriminating documents running into more than one lakh pages were received from Italy and Switzerland during the course of the probe.

The agency had also said that a payment sheet recovered from Christian Michel James, prepared on his dictation, shows that an amount of 30 million euros was paid/ proposed to be paid to the officers of the IAF, MoD, bureaucrats, politicians and family in India for showing favour in the VVIP helicopter deal.

The CBI said that middleman Christian Michel James further made payments to various persons in India out of the kickbacks received from AgustaWestland.