Consider the evidence: The curious case of Agusta accused Christian Michel

PM Narendra Modi has already said Michel will reveal the names of many top politicians in the VVIP chopper scam. No prizes for guessing who

Two top executives of AgustaWestland, a subsidiary of Finmeccanica of Italy, were imprisoned and fined by a court in Italy in 2016 on charges of bribery and falsifying invoices. While the charges of bribery against them were quashed on appeal in 2018, the case is still going on in the courts. But India believes bribes were paid: Through three people — Carlo Gerosa (who has since become a witness), Guido Haschke and Christian Michel. Michel, a British citizen who had fled to the UAE, was extradited to India last week. India is seeking the extradition of Gerosa and Haschke as well.

AgustaWestland was chosen by India to supply 12 helicopters to the Government of India to replace the Soviet-built Mi8, working life of which ran out in 2014. Negotiations began in 2000 and because specifications were so precise, only the Eurocopter qualified, causing a single-vendor situation.

Brajesh Mishra, the then principal secretary to the prime minister,  said this was to be avoided at all costs, and specifications were lowered to make the deal competitive. The move left two big players in the field: Finmeccanica's AgustaWestland (the AW-1O1), an Anglo-Italian aircraft; and the American firm Sikorsky's S 92 Superhawk. 

In 2010, after the field trials had been concluded and AgustaWestland was found to be better, Sikorsky put in a complaint that it hadn't received a debriefing on certain concessions given to each side during the technical bids stage and that it felt the trials had been unfair. It followed this up with a legal notice to the Ministry of Defence. 

Now that you look back on it, something about the deal was already smelling bad. But the gripes were put down to the usual noises made by rivals who had lost out on the contract. 

In the course of the hearings in the Italian courts, the public prosecutor produced documents they found at the residence of Guido Ralph Haschke, a middleman who contacted another ‘facilitator’, Christian Michel, who is said to have had contacts in the Indian government and is a defence middleman. The note had headings “AF”, which prosecutors said stands for the Air Force, “BUR” for bureaucrats, “POL” for politicians and “Fam” for family members of former Indian Air Force chief of staff, Air Marshal S P Tyagi. A separate case is going on against Air Marshal Tyagi. 

But the papers revealed other “facts”. Under “POL”, the note lists 3 million euros ($3.9 million) for “AP”. Prosecutors said in court they believed the initials referred to Ahmed Patel, political adviser to Sonia Gandhi, former Congress president.  Italian prosecutors allege India’s anti-corruption watchdogs also were on the list of those to receive payoffs. The list’s heading “CVC”, they say, refers to the Central Vigilance Commission, and “Auditor Gen” refers to the Comptroller and Auditor General.

In its FIR, the CBI — to which the matter was referred when then Defence Minister A K Antony cancelled the order and ordered an enquiry — said throughout the IAF had opposed lowering the altitude requirement but when Air Marshal Tyagi took over the IAF, it agreed to ease the criterion. His three relatives — Rajiv, Sanjeev and Sandeep Tyagi — were allegedly paid via fake firms. “Guido Haschke managed to send 5.6 million euros through Mohali-based IDS Infotech and Chandigarh-based Aeromatrix Info Solutions Private Ltd to India and kept the remaining amount of about 24.30 million euros received from AgustaWestland with themselves in the account of IDS Tunisia,” says the CBI FIR. 

The alleged clincher was a letter dated March 15, 2008, from Michel to Peter Hulet, then India region sales and liaison head of AgustaWestland. It reads: “Dear Peter, since Mrs Gandhi is the driving force behind the VIP, she will no longer fly with MI8… Mrs Gandhi and her closest advisers are the aim of the High Commissioner, senior advisor Prime Minister Manmohan Singh obviously the main figure, then there’s Ahmed Patel Secretary (sic).”

PM Narendra Modi has already said Michel will reveal the names of many top politicians. No prizes for guessing who. Meanwhile, Michel is reported to have told courts in Dubai that while he had done work with the United Progressive Alliance government,  “putting me in this case is just to pressurise me to testify against the previous government. The deal was without any kickback of fraud or bribes and I was not working in the company's branch in India; rather I was working in the company’s UK branch”.