Delhi court asks Tihar jail to respond on Christian Michel's plea

A Delhi court on Friday asked Tihar Jail to respond to a plea by British national Christian Michel, the middleman accused in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal, seeking direction to allocate a separate cell in Tihar Jail. Special Judge Arvind Kumar listed the matter for December 22.

Michel's counsel Aljo K. Joseph and Vishnu Sankar told the court that other inmates were trying to interact with Michel inside the jail and asking him questions on pending investigation in AgustaWestland deal case. Michel is currently in judicial custody till December 28. He was extradited to India on December 4 from the United Arab Emirates. Michel is one of the three middlemen being investigated by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the VVIP chopper deal.

In January, the ED had lodged a request with the UAE authorities for extraditing Michel. Both the ED and the CBI had filed charge sheets in bribery cases in Indian courts and non-bailable warrants had been issued against the accused.

In its charge sheet, the CBI had named former Indian Air Force chief S.P. Tyagi, his cousin Sanjeev Tyagi alias Julie, then IAF Vice Chief J.S. Gujral and advocate Gautam Khaitan as the four Indians involved in the scam.

Others named in the charge sheet included Giuseppe Orsi, the former chief of Italian defence and aerospace major Finmeccanica, and Bruno Spagnolini, former CEO of AgustaWestland, apart from middlemen Michel, Haschke and Gerosa.

On January 1, 2014, India cancelled 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 on charges of paying kickbacks amounting to Rs 423 crore. The CBI, which registered an FIR in the case on March 12, 2013, had alleged that Tyagi and the other accused had received kickbacks from AgustaWestland to help it win the contract.