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AgustaWestland case: Congress expels Christian Michel lawyer from party

British businessman Michel was Wednesday sent to five-day CBI custody by a Delhi court, a day after he was extradited to India from the UAE.

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Aljo K Joseph, lawyer of Christian Michel
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The Indian Youth Congress on Wednesday expelled its leader and lawyer Aljo K Joseph from the party after he appeared for Christian Michel, an alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland chopper deal.

“Aljo K Joseph appeared in his personal capacity. He did not consult the Youth Congress before appearing in the case. IYC does NOT endorse such actions. IYC has removed Aljo Joseph from IYC’s Legal Department and expelled him from the party with immediate effect,” read a statement tweeted by AICC joint secretary Krishna Allavaru, in charge of IYC, and released by IYC spokesperson Amrish Ranjan Pandey.

The row broke out after BJP Mumbai leader Suresh Nakhua tweeted, “Any guesses who is lawyer for Christian Michel ? Mr @Aljokjoseph , National incharge, legal dept, Indian youth congress (led by #OutonBail @rahulgandhi).” 
Joseph was summoned to the AICC HQ in Delhi, where he met party general secretary Deepak Babariya. Joseph said, “I only discharged my duty as lawyer. This has nothing to do with Congress. My relationship with Congress is separate and my professional relation is separate.” 

British businessman Michel was Wednesday sent to five-day CBI custody by a Delhi court, a day after he was extradited to India from the UAE.

“Aljo K Joseph appeared in the case in his personal capacity. IYC does not endorse such actions,” Indian Youth Congress said.

While Special Public Prosecutor Advocate DP Singh appeared for the CBI in the special court, the agency’s plea for custody was opposed by Michel’s counsel Joseph and Vishnu Shankaran who said they had not yet received any documents from the agency and that the accused may be remanded in judicial custody.

But CBI told the court it wanted to interrogate the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland chopper deal to confront him with evidence and unearth the money trail. 

Michel’s advocate, Aljo K Joseph, had asked the court for judicial custody. But CBI counsel DP Singh told the court that the agency “needs his [Michel’s] custody to confront him with some important documents... as money was transferred in two Dubai-based accounts.”

Michel was extradited from Dubai late on Tuesday night and produced before special CBI court judge Arvind Kumar. The court, while granting CBI his custody, allowed Michel’s counsel Joseph to meet him for an hour in the morning and evening each for consultation every day. 

Government sources said they were ready to provide Michel consular access to the UK High Commission. “We have no objections. Yet until now the Commission has not approached the MEA.” the sources said. 

Michel was earlier taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for a medical checkup. Michel’s extradition from the UK is significant in the backdrop of the ongoing extradition proceedings of fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya and the upcoming General Elections in 2019, in the run-up to which the BJP may corner the Opposition Congress which was in power when the scam occurred.

He is one of the three alleged middlemen being probed in the case, besides Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa, by the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI. Both the agencies had notified an Interpol red corner notice (RCN) against him after the court issued a non-bailable warrant against him.

The CBI has alleged there was an estimated loss of 398.21 million euros (approximately Rs 2,666 crore) to the exchequer in the deal that was signed on February 8, 2010 for the supply of VVIP choppers worth 556.262 million euros.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), in its charge sheet filed against Michel in June 2016, had alleged that he received 30 million euros (about Rs 225 crore) from AgustaWestland. The ED investigation found that remittances made by Michel through his Dubai-based firm Global Services to a media firm he floated in Delhi, along with two Indians, were made from the funds he received from AgustaWestland.

On January 1, 2014, India scrapped the contract with Italy-based Finmeccanica’s British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the Indian Air Force over alleged breach of contractual obligations.

On September 1, 2017, the CBI filed a charge sheet in the case in which Michel was named as one of the accused. Former IAF chief SP Tyagi was also charge-sheeted by the CBI in a Delhi court along with nine others in connection with a bribery case in the VVIP chopper deal.

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