New Delhi: AgustaWestland accused Rajiv Saxena, who was arrested in the Rs 3,600-crore money-laundering case, has been asked by the court to record his statement on March 2 after he moved an application to turn an approver in the case.
Saxena informed the court that he was under no pressure and that he completely understood the case.
"Have thought long and hard. No intention to not cooperate. I am under no pressure. It is on my free will completely and complete understanding of the case. No assurances were given and none sought," said Saxena.
Earlier, special judge Arvind Kumar had sought the Enforcement Directorate's response on Saxena's plea.
Saxena, who was present in the court, moved his application directly, and prayed that he "will make a full disclosure subject to the grant of pardon".
"The applicant humbly prays, without prejudice to his defence, that he may be granted pardon approver under Section 306 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 subject to the condition that he will make a full disclosure, to the extent, the facts are within his knowledge of which he will make a true and proper disclosure subject to the grant of pardon," his application said.
"The applicant has made a clean breast of the entire facts as known to the applicant with regard to the complaint pertaining to the AgustaWestland helicopters filed by the Directorate of Enforcement to the extent known to him," the application said.
Saxena was earlier granted bail by the court on medical grounds after he submitted medical reports from AIIMS.
The court had said that it was clear from the medical record that he was suffering from a number of serious ailments, including blood cancer, and needs constant medical checkups.
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.
Christian Michel, 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 chargesheet.
The ED had alleged that in connivance with Khaitan, Saxena provided a global corporate structure for laundering illegal proceeds of the crime for payment to various political persons, bureaucrats and Air Force officials to influence the contract to supply 12 VVIP helicopters in favour of AgustaWestland.
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 an alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of kickbacks of Rs 423 crore paid by it to secure the deal.
Maintaining that AgustaWestland had paid Euro 58 million as kickbacks through two Tunisia-based firms, the ED has alleged that "these companies further siphoned off the said money in the name of consultancy contracts to M/s Interstellar Technologies Limited, Mauritius and others which were further transferred to M/s UHY Saxena and M/s Matrix Holdings Ltd, Dubai and others".
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