Augusta Westland: Special CBI Judge Allows CBI To Further Interrogate Christian Michel In Tihar

Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar has allowed CBI to further interrogate Christian Michel in Tihar prison. CBI had moved the request for further interrogation in order to confront Michel with the new developments that have happened post the arrest of other accused Ratul Puri.

Christian Michel along with 11 other persons are accused in the Augusta Westland scam case. The charge sheet against Michel was filed in 2017, and he was arrested in December 2018 after being extradited from Dubai. He's allegedly termed as a 'Middleman' for the illegal transactions that took place in the VVIP chopper scam.

CBI had asked for two things in its application. First, it wanted to collect the writing specimen of the accused and, second, it wanted to further interrogate him regarding the new developments that have come up during the investigation.

CBI informed the court that, during the investigation, certain documents have been recovered which allegedly contain the writing of the accused. When Michel was in CBI's custody, certain samples of his writing were collected which were then forwarded to the Forensic Science Laboratory for further examination and opinion

The Forensic Science Lab, however, has asked for more writing/signature specimen of Michel for examination, comparison and giving opinion. Therefore, the present application was moved, asking for 2 days of interrogation and 1 day for collecting writing samples.

Michel's counsel raised two objections to the application. He argued that Michel has been trained by jail authorities for days to write in a certain way so that his writing can match the one found in recovered documents. He also objected to the delay caused in filing of this application.

Special Judge, however, accepted the demands of CBI and granted the investigative agency to further interrogate Michel for three days. The interrogation will take place from 26th to 28th September.