Chopper scam: Orsi denies knowing family of ex-air chief

Former Finmeccanica Chief Executive Officer Giuseppe Orsi has denied knowing the family of Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi in the ongoing investigations in Italy into the alleged payment of kickbacks of Rs 362 crore for supplying 12 VVIP choppers to India.

Orsi was arrested earlier this week by the Italian investigators in connection with the Rs 3,600 crore deal.

Appearing before an Italian magistrate there, Orsi said "three Nos" to queries about any mandate to the Swiss-American Guido Hashcke for "any type of manoeuvre" for the operation of Indian, knowing the Tyagi family and about adopting "illegal manoeuvres for the deal, Orsi's lawyer Ennio Amodio was quoted as saying by Italian news agency ANSA.

Haschke has been alleged to be one of the middlemen acting on behalf of Orsi for swinging the deal in favour of AgustaWestland.

Amodio said Haschke's statement about Orsi's role in the deal "may have been inspired by someone" as he has "radically changed compared to the initial version".

Orsi's lawyer also denied that his client had in any way tried to pressurize the Italian court looking into the matter and getting the prosecutor changed.

Orsi resigned on Friday as the chairman and director of the company.

India has already initiated steps to cancel the helicopter deal and issued a show cause notice to it saying why the deal should not be cancelled in view of the recent developments in the case.