British Businessman Christian Michel has moved the CBI Court seeking a ‘free and fair trial’ after the supplementary chargesheet filed in the AgustaWestland case was accessed by media houses.
The ED had filed its supplementary chargesheet against Michel in the AgustaWestland case few days back. The chargesheet was filed pursuant to the extradition and arrest of Michel in December last year. The ED has claimed that Michel has confessed to receiving kickbacks in the VVIP Chopper deal after liaisoning with party leaders and bureaucrats from the then UPA Government. It has also estimated the total value of kickbacks in the deal at 70 million Euro which were paid to political leaders, Indian Air Force Officers and other middlemen.The supplementary chargesheet also states that ‘AP’, ‘fam’ and ‘party leader’ were involved in the AgustaWestland deal. It is further stated that AP refers to Ahmad Patel, while ‘fam’ refers to ‘family’.Without clarifying the involvement in the case, it is also stated that Michel has confessed to knowing ‘Mrs. Gandhi’ since 1986-87.Apart from naming Michel’s Dubai Firm, Global Services, the chargesheet also names several new entities which were used to route the kickbacks in the VVIP chopper deal. Michel’s alleged associate David Syms also features as an accused in the chargehseet.In its earlier chargesheet filed in July 2018, ED had named former Indian Air Force (IAF) chief SP Tyagi, lawyer GautamKhaitan, Italian middlemen Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschka and several others in the case.Michel was named for the second time by the ED in its chargesheet in June 2016. The CBI had named Michel, Tyagi, Khaitan and others in its charge sheet in the case in September 2017.
CBI Court presided by Judge Arvind Kumar was hearing an application by Michel seeking a ‘free and fair trial’ after the supplementary chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate in the AgustaWestland case was accessed by media houses.The Special Public Prosecutor DP Singh urged the CBI Court to issue notice to news channel Republic in connection with the supplementary chargesheet against Christian Michel in the case got leaked.The counsel appearing for Michel, Advocates Aljo Joseph, and SriramParakkat also urged the Court to issue notice to Republic in connection with the leak.The Court has directed the Enforcement Directorate to file a reply to the application as well as a status report.
Court will issue notice (to Republic) after perusing the reply by EDsaid the court. The Court also issued summons to Michel’s alleged associate David Syms pursuant to the supplementary chargesheet.The Application by Michel had claimed that the Enforcement Directorate was not interested in a fair trial in a court of law and only wants a trial by media which is causing prejudice to the rights of the accused. It was further contended that the Government was using Investigating Agencies for political purposes, and the supply of the supplementary chargesheet to media was the best example of that.
The application will next be heard on April 11.
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