Supreme Court Refuses To Cancel Bail Of Augusta Westland Scam Accused-Turned-Approver Rajeev Saxena

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (January 16) refused to cancel the bail granted to the accused-turned-approver Rajeev Saxena in the VVIP Augusta Westland Chopper Scam. The CBI was granted the liberty to move an application before the Trial Court for the same.

The bench comprising the Chief Justice, DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra was approached by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to cancel the bail granted by the Delhi Court.

Saxena, a director of two Dubai-based firms - UHY Saxena and Matrix Holdings, is one of the accused named in the charge sheet filed by ED in the AgustaWestland case.

Appearing on behalf of the CBI, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Mr SV Raju contended that the respondent was not cooperating with the investigation authorities and that it was essential for the Court to issue directions for him to cooperate accordingly.

ASG SV Raju contended that “ He's not co-operating, he's not giving us documents, he's not answering questions, not coming to us when we are calling him…I am not pressing for cancellation, my entire endeavour is to show that he is not cooperating, let there be a condition/direction that he should cooperate, he should come when we call for, he doesn't come, he doesn't comply with a summons”

The CJI, referring to the original order, verbally observed that “ It's not that the original order granted (bail) only on the grounds of medical conditions, it is also recorded (by the Trial Judge) that he has cooperated”

The bench refused to interfere and dismissed the application for cancellation bail, although liberty was granted to CBI to move an application before the Trial Court.

Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the deal, former AgustaWestland and Finmeccanica directors Giuseppe Orsi and Bruno Spagnolini, former Air Force chief SP Tyagi and Saxena's wife Shivani have also been named by the agency in the charge sheet.

On January 1, 2014, India had scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of kickbacks of Rs 423 crore paid by it to secure the deal.

Background

A Special CBI Court in Delhi had allowed Saxena to turn approver and had granted him a pardon on March 25, 2019.

The ED had thereafter moved the Special Court in Rouse Avenue Court against the grant of pardon contending that Saxena had exhibited bad faith, and had demurred from making a full and true disclosure of the facts and circumstances of the case, which was one of the essential conditions, subject to which pardon had been granted to him, by the Special Judge.

The application however came to be dismissed on March 5, 2020 as premature, for Saxena was yet to depose before the court as a witness.

In June 2020, the Delhi High Court single-judge bench of Justice C. Hari Shankar dismissed the Enforcement Directorate's plea for revocation of the pardon granted to Rajiv Saxena, one of the accused in the VVIP Chopper Scam case.

The court observed that the Dubai-based businessman was yet to be examined by the Trial Court, and merely because the Public Prosecutor had issued a "Certificate for revocation of pardon" under Section 308 (1) of CrPC, on the basis of investigation, would not lead to revocation of pardon.

"Non-co-operation, during investigation, is not one of the circumstances contemplated, by Section 308 (1), as justifying issuance of certificate by the Public Prosecutor. Quite obviously, this is because the condition, whereunder pardon is granted to the accomplice, is candour before the court, and not candour before the investigating officer," the court held while terming the certificate of the Public Prosecutor to be a "futility".

Case Details : CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION vs. RAJIV SAXENA SLP(Crl) No. 000723 / 2024