India’s federal law enforcement and economic intelligence agency, Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday (22) arrested British businessman Christian Michel the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case.
Earlier in the day, the accused was produced before Special Judge Arvind Kumar where the federal probe agency sought his 15 days custody.
Prior to his arrest, the court granted its permission to question the British national inside court room for 15 minutes after ED sought its custodial interrogation.
The probe agency arrested him in a money-laundering case.
Michel was extradited from UAE after necessary legal proceedings on December 4. The next day, he was brought before the court, which permitted his five-day custodial questioning by the country’s federal probe agency, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). It was extended by five more days, and later for another four days.
The court had reserved its order on Michel's bail petition on December 19 and had sent him to judicial custody till December 28.
ED, in its charge sheet filed against Michel in June 2016, had alleged that he received Rs 2.25 billion from the Anglo-Italian multinational firm, AgustaWestland. Michel is among the three alleged middlemen being probed in the case by the ED and the CBI besides, Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa.
India on January 1, 2014, had scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica’s British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the Indian Air Force (IAF) on an alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of paying kickbacks to the tune of Rs 4.23bn by it for securing the agreement.
CBI has alleged that there was an estimated loss of Rs 26.66bn to the exchequer in the deal that was agreed on February 8, 2010, to supply VVIP choppers worth €556.262million.
