After bail rejections, Christian Michel pins hopes on CBI supplementary chargesheet

PTI12_5_2018_000130A (File) Christian Michel | PTI

Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case, has been cooling his heels in Tihar jail for eight months now, but he has not given up on the hope to be free one day. Sources said Michel is likely to knock on the doors of the High Court seeking relief after his bail application got rejected by the special CBI court last week.

This was the second time Michel’s lawyers were seeking bail for the British national, but he wasn’t lucky enough.

Confined in the four walls of jail number 2 in Tihar, Michel has adapted to the jail routine for now, eating Indian food and spending his time reading.

However, the businessman is also busy following up developments related to the case in the domestic and international court in Italy through his lawyers even as he is keen to once again press his request for getting bail soon.

The CBI's supplementary chargesheet in the case was expected to be filed in the first week of September, but there has been a delay. “The chargesheet will be filed soon,” said an official.

Michel, who claims that the case against him is politically motivated, is keeping his arguments ready and is likely to take recourse in the Enforcement Directorate’s findings that he had been roped in by AgustaWestland in 2006 post lowering of operational height of helicopters.

With ED in the chargesheet saying “Michel was roped only after the lowering of operational heights of helicopters”, the scam remains shrouded in mystery as the tenders that were floated in 2002 for new helicopters mentioned one of the conditions for the bidder as the capability to fly at an altitude of 6,000 metres. But this criteria was changed by the defence ministry under UPA-I government, which brought down the flying altitude to 4,500 metres. The allegations against Michel are that he was instrumental in securing the deal for AgustaWestland.

Michel’s claim is that since he was not involved in bringing down the height, as per the ED findings, he cannot be accused of corruption in the deal which was finalised with AgustaWestland only in 2010.

All eyes are now on the CBI chargesheet and whether it will shed light on the allegations of whether lowering of height was done to favour AgustaWestland and what was Michel's involvement in it.

Will the CBI agree with the ED’s findings or choose to disagree will become clear when the supplementary chargesheet is filed. Sources in the CBI said the agency has enough evidence to establish Michel’s involvement as a middleman in the case, which will keep him behind bars for a long time. Meanwhile, Michel will continue to knock on the doors of the court hoping to walk out of jail. This, however, seems a tall order as of now.