The Enforce Directorate (ED) has claimed that alleged middleman of the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam, Christian Michel named a certain “Mrs Gandhi” during his interrogation. The counsel representing the probe agency made the revelation before the Patiala House Court over the weekend, while seeking an eight day custody of Michel. The court extended his custody for another week. An ED lawyer told the court that the extradited businessman was in touch with one Mrs Gandhi and “the son of the Italian lady” and how he is going to become “the next prime minister of the country”. The reference may be at Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi. However, no clarifications have been made on the individuals Michel mentioned while in Ed custody.
The counsel also claimed that Michel has told the agency how HAL was removed from deal to be replaced by Tata. ED also asked that Michel's lawyer should not be allowed to meet him, claiming that he was being “tutored from outside”. They told the court that Michel handed over a piece of paper to his lawyer Aljo K Joseph during the meeting, which when checked, had questions about Gandhi asked during the interrogation.
Michel is a British national and an established arms dealer who allegedly helped Italian defence company Finmeccanica's AgustaWestland to bag the February 2010 deal for 12 AW101 choppers. The ED's chargesheet filed against Michel in June 2016, accusing him of receiving 30 million euros or about £22.5 million from the helicopter manufacturer for bribing Indian bureaucrats, politicians and Indian Air Force officials. Michel's diaries, seized by the Italian police and later handed over to the CBI, reveal he might have paid 6 million euros to Indian Air Force (IAF) officers, 8.4 million to bureaucrats in addition to 15-16 million to an unidentified political family.
