[Augusta Westland] Delhi Court Rejects Bail Plea Filed By Christian Michel

A Delhi Court on Friday dismissed the bail plea filed by filed by Christian Michel in relation with the Augusta Westland deal.

Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar rejected the bail plea after it had sought response of CBI and Enforcement Directorate in the month of April this year.

Moved through Advocates K Jospeh,MS Vishnu Shankar and Sriram Parakkat, the plea stated that Christian Michel was illegality taken to custody by the Government of India and the executing agency CBI and deported from Dubai on 4th December 2018 and thereafter produced before the Court.

"…the deprivation of liberty of christian james michel by the government of india, being in contravention of articles 3, 9, 10 and 11 (1) of the universal declaration of human rights and articles 9 (3); 10 (1); and 14 (1)–(2) and (3) (b)–(d) and (g) of the international covenant on civil and political rights".

Praying for an unconditional bail in both the cases, the Application reads thus:

"The applicant has undergone almost 600 hours of custodial interrogation by both the agencies. As of today, the Applicant has spent more than 2 year and 4 months in addition to the period which he spent in Dubai jail."

Special Public Prosecutors Naveen Kumar Matta along with DP Singh appeared in the matter for the two agencies i.e. ED and CBI.

The chargesheet against Michel was filed in 2017 after which he was arrested in December 2018 after being extradited from Dubai. He is allegedly termed as a 'Middleman' for the illegal transactions that took place in the VVIP chopper scam.

The CBI had alleged that there was an estimated loss of Euro 398.21 million (about 2666 Crore) to the exchequer in the deal that was signed on February 8, 2010 for the supply of VVIP choppers worth Euro 556.262 million.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had then filed a chargesheet against Mr. Michel in June, 2016, alleging that he had received EUR 30 million (about Rs 225 crore) from AgustaWestland.