The Rs 3600-crore AgustaWestland scam accused Christian Michel wants to speak to his wife in France, brother and sister in the UK and lawyer Rosemary Patrizi in Italy but the Tihar jail authorities have put a spoke in his wheel.
The authorities have moved a petition in the special CBI court saying that permission to Michel granted by it to speak to his family, friends and lawyers for 15 minutes every week needs to be reviewed.
The move by the jail authorities to seek a review is being seen as an attempt to prevent Michel from disclosing details about his questioning by the agencies. Sources in the enforcement directorate said that the review is essentially to ask the court to make the permission an “exception” in Michel's case, as the rule book allows only 10 minutes to foreign prisoners to contact their family and lawyers in other countries.
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Denying that they are trying to prevent him from contacting his legal counsel, the ED sources said that the accused was seen passing a chit to his lawyer Aljo K. Joseph in court which they had objected to as they saw it as tampering with evidence. The defence counsel is, however, worried that Michel may be coerced to make certain statements or his statements maybe misconstrued by the agencies.
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“This should not set a precedent. Since Michel has no family and no friends in the country, the permission to him needs to be seen as an exception and not a rule,” said an official. There have been differences and discussions within the ED on how to approach the matter. The order issued by the special CBI court had been passed in the presence of jail superintendent C.R. Meena after duly considering the matter.
Joseph, who is the former head of the legal cell of the Youth Congress, said that the “government is trying to put pressure on a person in judicial custody and disobeying the directions issued by the special court”.
“As such there can be no review in such a matter in criminal proceedings but jail authorities want a review.”
The curious case of whether Michel can establish contact with his lawyer and family has drawn many eyeballs particularly after the ED has the incident report on Michel’s note to continue to press for certain restrictions on his contacts outside the jail.
The matter is expected to come up for hearing on Monday.
