AgustaWestland Case: Christian Michel moves application seeking permission to make international calls

Christian Michel, the alleged 'middleman' in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam, on Thursday moved an application before a special CBI court, seeking permission to make international calls to his family, friends and lawyers. Post that, the court has asked the jail superintendent to submit a report regarding the matter on January 14.

"Christian Michel has moved an application before a special CBI court seeking permission to make international calls to his family, friends and to his lawyers. The court has asked the jail superintendent to submit a report on January 14," the news agency ANI reported.

Christian Michel has moved an application before a special CBI court seeking permission to make international calls to his family, friends and to his lawyers. The court has asked the jail superintendent to submit a report on January 14. #agustawestland (file pic) pic.twitter.com/r5JTXDafEE

— ANI (@ANI) January 10, 2019

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Last week, Delhi's Patiala House Court had sent Michel to judicial custody. In the ED case, Michel was sent to judicial custody till February 26 while in the CBI case, the court sent him to judicial custody till February 27. Michel, who was extradited from Dubai last month, was arrested by the ED on December 22 and sent to a seven-day custody of the agency. He was earlier lodged in the Tihar Jail in a related CBI case.

Interestingly, the court had earlier imposed restrictions on Michel meeting his lawyers in ED custody after the agency alleged that he was misusing legal access by passing chits to the advocates, asking them how to tackle questions on "Mrs Gandhi". The agency sought that Michel be barred from meeting his lawyers in custody, alleging that he was being tutored from outside through his lawyers.

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Michel is among the three alleged middlemen being probed by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the AgustaWestland chopper scam case. The others are Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa.

The AgustaWestland VVIP Chopper case pertains to the Indian government’s deal to purchase 12 AW101 helicopters from AgustaWestland. The deal was signed by the then Congress-led UPA government in February 2010. The choppers were supposed to ferry VVIPs, including the President of India and the Prime Minister.

However, controversies surrounded the deal after reports that Finmeccanica paid a huge amount of money to several officials and politicians to win the VVIP choppers deal with the Indian Air Force.

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It was alleged that the some of the technical specifications were changed to help AgustaWestland bag the deal. According to a CBI claim, the deal had cost the taxpayers a loss of approximately Rs 3,666 crore.