Air Chief Marshall Arup Raha.

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 28

Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshall Arup Raha on Wednesday came out in support of former IAF chief SP Tyagi saying that “they stand by him till he is proven guilty”.

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He also listed the IAF requirement of an additional 200-250 fighter jets to meet the short fall arising out of future phasing out of the MiG 21 jets.

Raha, who retires on December 31, was meeting the media in New Delhi when he, without naming Tyagi, said the former Chief was part of the IAF family and “they stand by him, however, if charges are proved against him, they will have no sympathy”.

He said blaming the IAF alone for the AgustaWestland bribery scandal was not right.

Tyagi, a former IAF Chief – retired in 2007 – was arrested recently by the Central Bureau of Investigation on alleged bribery charges in the Rs 3,600 crore deal to buy 12 helicopters from Italian firm AgustaWestland for use of top VVIPs.

On being asked about fighter jets, Raha said we need more medium weight fighter jets – a classification for jets. The Sukhoi 30 MKI is in the heavy weight category, the Tejas is the light-weight category, while the Rafale was ordered recently from France.

“We need a second line of production of fighter jets under the make in India procedure”, Raha said while putting the collective need at 200-250 jets in the next 10 years.