The AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam has been nothing short of a fast-paced thriller ever since middleman Christian Michel was extradited to India from Dubai. Several revelations came to light, from the names of “Italian Lady”, to “Italian Lady’s son R“. From how Christian Michel was lobbying for the Eurofighter and against the Rafale deal, to how he had unbridled access to the PMO under Congress regime, the CCS and even the investigative agencies. In another massive headway, yesterday the Modi government managed the get Rajiv Saxena to India, who is one of the prime accused in the scam.
In an important development in the investigations into UPA era scams, two high-profile persons linked to the scams, Rajiv Saxena and Deepak Talwar were brought back from Dubai to India.
Lawyer of Rajiv Saxena, who is an accused in the VVIP chopper scam, has informed that he was picked up by UAE government security agencies yesterday morning in Dubai, and later he was extradited to India in the evening.
Rajiv Saxena is accused in a money laundering case connected with the AgustaWestland deal. He had filed an anticipatory bail plea in a Delhi court last month, which the ED had opposed. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had named him in a supplementary charge sheet filed in the VVIP Chopper scam in September 2017. Saxena and his wife Shivani Saxena are directors in two Dubai based companies, while he is a director in another Mauritius based company, and it is alleged that all those companies received proceeds of the kickbacks paid in the AgustaWestland deal.
It was reported that Rajiv Saxena has several accounts in Switzerland. OpIndia has acquired the list of accounts that Rajiv Saxena allegedly used for kickbacks received in the AgustaWestland scam.
The following are the accounts based in Switzerland in which the kickback of the AgustaWestland scam was deposited. The investigating agencies are trying to ascertain for whose benefit were these accounts maintained.
The banks in which the amounts were allegedly deposited, include Union Bancaire Privee UBP in Zurich, UBS Switzerland, and Credit Suiss AG, says the dossier accessed by OpIndia. The remittances into these accounts came allegedly from Matrix Group Ltd, UHY Saxena and Associates, Tiramisu Holdings Inc and Tanay Holdings Ltd, the document claimed.
About Deepak Talwar, the dossier says that he facilitated dispersal of profit making routes of Air India to private airlines using his connection with the then Civil Aviation Minister. This fact was reportedly corroborated by payments by private airlines who were benefitted from such illegalities.
The Dossier also says that Qatar, Emirates and Air Arabia were beneficiaries of route dispersal and Deepak Talwar received a kickback of Rs. 212 crores in the foreign bank accounts in Bank of Singapore in the name of the company controlled by Talwar.
Deepak Talwar has also received a kick back in the purchase of Air India Airbus. He had received kickbacks in the account of Advantage India, an NGO controlled by Deepak Talwar himself.
Deepak Talwar was a high profile lobbying of the Congress era who has alleged syphoned off thousands of crores. The full profile of Deepak Talwar can be read here. Deepak Talwar was perhaps was as powerful as Niira Radia if not more. His exploits were not limited to these. He was caught in several instances and in fact, his proximity to the Congress had also emerged. Congress leader Digvijaya Singh’s name emerged in the files recovered by the IT department in 2016, from the raids on Talwar’s premises. The recovered data allegedly show that Singh and his family members were frequently upgraded on international flights, mostly on Emirates. Recently, CBI had booked Talwar in the Air Asia scam.
