Focus on AgustaWestland is bad news for the Congress right now.
At a time when the Congress is going hammer-and-tongs after NDA over the supposed Rafale scam, the Modi government got a shot in the arm after a Dubai court ordered an extradition of British citizen and alleged middleman Christian Michel in the Rs 3600 crore VVIP chopper deal case, sources said late on Tuesday. By bringing back Michel, the Centre will be introducing a powerful weapon in an air fight where Congress is trying to keep the heat on the Rafale deal.
Late on Tuesday night Congress leaders along with Rahul Gandhi said they will head to the CAG at 11 AM today.
On a day when barbs were exchanged between former Defence Minister AK Antony and current incumbent Nirmala Sitharaman, sources said that a Dubai court pronounced the judgement Tuesday after India had officially made the request to the gulf nation sometime back, based on the criminal investigations conducted in this case by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The full contents of the order against Christian Michel James (54) are expected to be known by today as the legal pronouncement is in Arabic and is being translated in English at the behest of Indian authorities, they said. This comes after Michel had reportedly claimed that he was told by the CBI that he would be allowed ‘to walk’ if he could.
On July 31 this year, Christian Michel, a suspected middleman in the AgustaWestland chopper scam, claimed he was asked to implicate UPA leaders Sonia Gandhi and Ahmed Patel. CBI had denied questioning him, but he had said: “The] CBI is lying; I have at least six witnesses to prove that we had three meetings," he said.
Earlier, the Congress had accused the Modi government of creating a "web of lies" and launching a "concerted conspiracy" against its leadership in the AgustaWestland case by using its investigative agencies. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged that the statement of the lawyer of suspected middleman Christian Michel, who was detained in Dubai, shows that the Centre and its agencies are forcing him to make a false confessional statement against UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
Michel has been extensively interviewed by the Indian media in Dubai in the past and both the agencies want him to join the probe to take the case forward.The ED had also brought on record, in the chargesheet, that the three middlemen "managed to" make inroads into the Indian Air Force (IAF) to influence the stand of the officials into reducing the service ceiling of the helicopters from 6,000 metre to 4,500 metre in 2005.
AgustaWestland became eligible to supply the dozen helicopters for VVIP flying duties after this change.
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 which he got from AgustaWestland through "criminal activity" and corruption being done in the chopper deal that led to the subsequent generation of proceeds of crime.
On January 1, 2014, India scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of paying kickbacks to the tune of Rs 423 crore by it for securing the deal.
The perceived spotlight will be bad news for Rahul Gandhi at a time when the Congress is hell-bent on proving that Rafale deal is Modi’s Bofors moment. Cries of injustice, no matter how true, will certainly not play well in the court of public opinion considering they are coming from quarters accused of their own improprieties.
With inputs from PTI
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