'Nobody will be spared whatever may be the consequences,' he said at the margins of the 15th Asian Security Conference-2013 here on Wednesday.

The former IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi, whose name has surfaced in the VVIP helicopter scam admitted having met one of the alleged middlemen but claimed innocence.

'I have met Carlo in my cousins' place but when you say you have contact with him, then the answer is no. What connection could I have with him? I want to tell you that the whole process started after I retired... the entire process of evaluation, trials, contracts took place in 2010,' he said.

The former IAF chief refuted allegations that he was paid bribes to swing a Rs 3,600 crore deal for procuring 12 choppers from Italian firm Finmeccanica to ferry VVIPS.

'I am innocent. These allegations are totally baseless and I am denying them categorically. The deal was signed in 2010 whereas I retired in 2007 itself,' he said.

Names of Tyagi's three cousins Julie, Docsa and Sandeep Tyagi have also figured in reports suggesting that they had also a role to play in clinching the deal. He denied that his relationship with his cousins had any business dimension.

Asked if he had changed any specifications for the contract to favour Finmeccanica, Tyagi said the 'staff qualitative requirements for the VVIP choppers were frozen in 2003, much before I assumed the office of Chief of Air Staff, and the IAF did not change any requirements after that.'

Reports today suggested that Italian investigators have alleged in a preliminary inquiry submitted in an Italian court that business conglomerate Finmeccanica bribed S P Tyagi when he was chief of the Indian Air Force to swing the controversial AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal in favour of the company.

Another scam has unfolded with the arrest of the head of a state-controlled Italian aerospace company on Tuesday.

The company is suspected of paying bribes of about Rs 362 crore in India to get orders for helicopters to ferry Indian VVIPs, prompting the government to order a CBI probe.

Reacting to this, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has said, the government is in touch with Italy to get information on the 2010 chopper deal. Talking to reporters in New Delhi , Mr Khurshid said, the government will act as per the law and not to please the Opposition.

The opposition BJP today asked the government as to how long it will protect bribe-takers and said it will raise the issue strongly during the Budget Session of Parliament. Leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley demanded that the helicopter deal should be reviewed and the supply of the remaining nine choppers be stopped till all doubts are cleared.

CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury also demanded that the contract for the Rs 3600 crore VVIP chopper deal be scrapped in the wake of bribery charges.