Michel sent to 5-day CBI custody by court in VVIP chopper case

British businessman Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the graft-tainted Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal during the UPA rule, was Wednesday sent to five-day CBI custody by a Delhi court, a day after he was extradited to India from the UAE.

As the extradition sparked a political slugfest between the BJP and the Congress, Michel, 57, was produced before Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar amid tight security at the Patiala House courts complex. The Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) arrested Michel, who was chargesheeted in the AgustaWestland case, on his arrival from Dubai late last night.

Michel will again be produced in the court on December 10.

CBI prosecutor D P Singh said Michel was required for custodial interrogation to unearth the "deep rooted conspiracy" and the money trail.

The custody was required to identify Michel's accomplices including the Indian Air Force(IAF) officials, bureaucrats and politicians, who were influenced/instrumental in changing the decisions, which made Anglo-Italian company AgustaWestland eligible to participate in the bidding process and ultimately bagged it, he argued.

India has since scrapped the contract with Italy-based Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of paying kickbacks by it for securing the deal. The deal, initialled in 2010, was scrapped on January 1, 2014.

While seeking custodial remand of Michel, the CBI prosecutor contended "an amount of 42.27 million Euro(Rs 283 crore at the then prevailing exchange rate) was paid by the Westland Group companies to the firms of accused Christian Michel James as kickbacks/ bribe without undertaking any work against the receipt of such amount."
"The government has brought the middleman involved in a helicopter scam from Dubai. He served politicians and will now disclose secrets," the prime minister said. "Let's see how far this goes."