Former IAF chief S P Tyagi today became the first Air Chief to be booked by the CBI, along with 12 others, for alleged cheating, corruption and criminal conspiracy in the Rs 3600 crore VVIP helicopter deal and searches were carried out at 14 locations including his residence.

The former Air Chief, his cousins--Sanjeev alias Julie, Rajeev alias Docsa and Sandeep, European middlemen Carlo Gerosa, Christian Michel and Guido Haschke were among 13 individuals named in the FIR as accused, CBI sources said.

Shashi Tyagi is the first Chief of the Indian Air Force to be named in a corruption or criminal case by the CBI.

SMSes seeking his comments today remained unanswered. He had denied all the allegations against him.

CBI alleged that during his tenure as Air Chief, Tyagi and "with his approval" the Air Force "conceded to reduce the service ceiling for VVIP helicopters from 6000 meters to 4500 meters as mandatory to which it was opposing vehemently on the grounds of security constraints and other related reasons," agency sources said.

It alleged that reduction of service ceiling--maximum height at which a helicopter can perform normally--allowed UK-based AgustaWestland to come into the fray as, otherwise, its helicopters were not even qualified for submission of bids.

CBI alleged that middleman Haschke through his Tunisia- based company Gordian Services Sarl entered into several consultancy contracts with AgustaWestland from 2004-05 onwards and "almost on back-to-back basis he also made consultancy contracts with the Tyagi brothers (Tyagi's cousins)," the sources said.

Under the cover of these contracts, Haschke allegedly sent Euro 1.26 lakh and two lakh to Tyagi brothers.

"Besides these two remittances, Tyagi brothers also received some unquantified sum of money from the middlemen (Haschke and Gerosa). The inflow of remittances to Tyagi brothers and softening of IAF's stand on service ceiling of the helicopter closely match in terms of time," the FIR said.

According to the FIR, "Haschke and Gerosa managed to send Euro 5.6 million through Mohali-based IDS Infotech and Chandigarh-based Aeromatric Info Solutions private limited to India and kept the remaining amount out of about Euro 24.30 million received from AgustaWestland with themselves in the account of IDS Tunisia".

"A portion of this amount was sent to India through Mauritius and hawala route in order to pay kickbacks in India for swinging the VVIP helicopter deal in favour of AgustaWestland," it said.

CBI also alleged that AgustaWestland managed to introduce a comparative flight trial with non-functional engine and eventually succeeded in getting the contract for supply of 12 AW-101 VVIP Helicopters from the Defence Ministry mainly due to softening of the IAF on service ceiling after Tyagi took over as its Chief.

The agency alleged that out of total Euro 51 million kickbacks paid by AgustaWestland, British middleman Christian Michel was paid about Euro 30 million.

Two new names, which were not part of the agency's preliminary enquiry, have also been included in the FIR. They include brother of former Union Minister Santosh Bagrodia, Satish Bagrodia, and Pratap Aggarwal, Chairman and Managing Director of IDS Infotech respectively, they said.

Six companies including Italy-based Finmeccanica, AgustaWestland, Mohali-based IDS Infotech, Chandigarh based Aeromatrix, IDS Tunisia and IDS Mauritius have also been booked by the CBI in its FIR, CBI sources said.

CEO of Aeromatrix Praveen Bakshi and former Finmeccanica Chairman Giuseppe Orsi, former AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini and legal advisor and former board member of IDS Infotech--Gautam Khaitan are also named as accused, they said.

All the accused have refuted allegations against them.

CBI has alleged that Khaitan, Bagrodia, Aggarwal, Bakshi facilitated the middlemen for bringing bribe money to India.