The Enforcement Directorate told the court that they had seized many communications in which Christian Michel refers to Rahul Gandhi as “Italian lady’s son” “going to be the PM”. Another revelation by the agency was the role of Ratan Tata in the Agusta deal. – PGurus
At last, the middleman Christian Michel has started revealing the roles of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Ratan Tata in the AgustaWestland Helicopter scam. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) told the Court that Michel’s custody is needed as he started revealing the roles of Sonia Gandhi in the VVIP Copter scam involving Rs.400 crores kickback payoffs. Michel has handled around Rs. 276 crores bribery routed through his firms in Dubai and India from Agusta, for the purchase of 12 VVIP Helicopters deal of Rs.3600 crores.
The ED also told the court that they seized many communications in which Michel refers to Rahul Gandhi as “Italian lady’s son” “going to be the PM”. Another revelation by the agency was the role of Ratan Tata in the Agusta deal. Tata Group’s India Rotorcraft was selected as the partner of Agusta in 2010 and the joint venture was started in further purchase and assembling of Agusta Helicopter’s other brands in India. The Tata firm was selected after avoiding the public sector undertaking HAL. The then Defence Secretary Vijay Singh was involved in helping Tata who was considered as the approving authority in the Helicopter deal. After retirement, Vijay Singh became a Director of Tata Sons.
The Defence Secretary Vijay Singh’s role in Agusta scam was exposed earlier by industrialist Cyrus Mistry[1]. Ratan Tata deposed in the Italian trial court also. Somehow due to media management of the Tata Group, Indian media avoided reporting Ratan Tata’s role in the controversy. Now ED has informed the trial court based on the revelations by Michel.
The agency also informed the court about the frauds of Michel’s advocate Aljo Joseph, who belonged (?) to the Youth Congress. ED officers caught Michel for handing over slips to Aljo and the slips were about the officers’ questions regarding Sonia Gandhi. Now it is clear that Congress purposefully deputed Youth Congress lawyers to act as courier boys with Michel in custody of agencies.
“During the medical examination, Mr. Christian Michel James stood up and turned towards his advocate Mr. Aljo Joseph standing next to him and acted like shaking hands with the advocate and saying him good-bye and extended his hands for hand-shake. It was noticed that Mr. Christian Michel James secretly handed over a folded paper to his counsel Mr. Aljo Joseph. The incident was noticed by the Deputy Director present in the room and Joseph was asked to turn over the paper to them,” said ED seeking prevention of the Youth Congress activist Advocate who acted as a courier boy.
The Court has now cut short the meeting time of lawyers with the accused and ordered that they should keep three feet distance from Michel while sending him to further seven days custody of ED on Saturday.
As per the analysis of the agencies, out of around Rs.400 crores bribe, Rs.276 crores went to political level and rest, around Rs.125 crores, went to officials. Christian Michel from 1998 to October 2012, visited more than 300 times to India and it is known to all that he was having good relations with Sonia Gandhi. It is also learned that CBI is inspecting the SPG documents to verify the exact details of Michel’s meeting with Sonia Gandhi and family members[2].
Investigations are expected to broaden on the role of Christian Michel in executing and lobbying for many aviation contracts from the mid-90s, where he clinched the deals only due to his proximity with the Sonia Gandhi family. It is learned that Michel was involved in bagging tender of old used helicopters at junk price also. Michel and his late father Wolfgang Michel were the agents of many foreign aviation firms in India due to their close links with Sonia Gandhi, who used to stay at their home in London many times. – PGurus, 29 December 2018
» Team PGurus are a team of focused individuals with expertise in at least one of the following fields viz. Journalism, Technology, Economics, Politics, Sports & Business. We are factual, accurate and unbiased.
References
[1] Tata Sons Director Vijay Singh ‘involved’ in AgustaWestland scam: Cyrus Mistry – Dec 12, 2016, DNAIndia.com
[2] CBI to verify SPG records to ascertain Christian Michel’s meetings with Sonia Gandhi – Dec 21, 2018, PGurus.com
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