Pilatus “dishonestly and fraudulently” concealed this fact while signing a Pre-Contract Integrity Pact on November 11, 2010 with the Ministry of Defence. (PTI)The CBI late Friday raided nine locations across Delhi-NCR associated with arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari and Swiss company Pilatus Aircraft Ltd after registering a case of corruption against them. The agency is probing alleged bribery in a 2012 deal for purchase of 75 trainer aircraft from Pilatus at a cost of Rs 2,895 crore.
In its FIR, registered on June 19, the CBI has listed eight accused — unknown officials of the Indian Air Force and Ministry of Defence, followed by Bhandari, Pilatus and Bhandari's company, Offset India Solutions Pvt Ltd. Charged with corruption, criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct, the other accused include Offset Director Bimal Sareen, suspected entry operators Deepak Aggarwal and Himanshu Verma, and Offset Solutions FZC, Dubai.
Bhandari is already facing a probe by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with foreign assets allegedly held by Robert Vadra, a claim denied by Vadra.
“Searches have been conducted at nine places in Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad. These include premises of Sanjay Bhandari, Deepak Aggarwal and Himanshu Verma. Apart from this, offices of Pilatus, Offset and other companies associated with them have also been searched. Several electronic devices along with incriminating documents have been recovered,” a CBI spokesperson said.
The CBI…
