The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday told Delhi Patiala High Court that Christian Michel, the accused in AgustaWestland VIP chopper scam case, made references like “Mrs Gandhi and son of Italian lady, he will become the next PM of India and big man R.” The court granted seven days of further custodial interrogation of Michel.
Among the big revelations in the remand paper submitted by the ED was the claim that it is investigating the modus operandi adopted by Christian Michel to eliminate TATA and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) from competition in an Italian deal. The remand paper states, “The steps undertaken to mask/portray the present deal as a British deal instead of an Italian deal to gain the advantage in Light Observation Helicopters” need to be probed. It also said, “Modus operandi adopted in managing to influence the German deal” needs to be investigation, and “how the accused violated and misused information leading to actions under the Official Secrets Act” also needs to be probed.
According to an Economic Times report, one of the key correspondence exchanged between representatives of AgustaWestland officials speaks of some tension between French and Germans over a “big programme” and identified one of the main reasons for the friction as Munich’s decision to “appoint the family” without taking Paris into confidence.
The Economic Times report further says that agency suspects Christian Michel of employing cryptic language for deals involving French and Germans. In the dispatch, there is also a mention of “Rafael”- a leading Israel arms manufacturer and “company Airbus.” Investigating agencies are interrogating Michel over the said correspondence; there is still obscurity over the date. According to the Economic Times report, investigating agencies are probing the matter where Michel and his middlemen were involved in influencing the other defense deals besides the AgustaWestland deal.
There is a mention of C.D many times in the communication which goes like, “I have been trying to meet with C.D for a long time. He has risen in his organisation as he is one of the few directors who have not been tainted by the insider trading scandal.” It further adds, “The Germans were given control of the big programme, as his company are shareholders of ‘D’ company and there is an important conflict of interest. The British had all the Saudi problems and knowing as they do what India involves, they did not want to touch it. That left the Germans – but with their inexperience, C.D decided to keep control of all the important decisions. The Germans started working well and things were moving. Then the Germans started taking decisions on important issues without consultations with Paris.”
The dispatch of the alleged middleman in AgustaWestland deal, Christian Michel from 2010 reads, “C.D called a meeting in Paris with the German bosses to bring Paris up-to-date with what has been going on. Paris was furious with Munich for a number of bad decisions taken without consultations, one of them being to appoint the family. I do not wish the messenger to be shot but I am going to repeat what he said. The family had approached them on certain other issues concerning C.D…Company Airbus?” It adds “C.D’s company then discovered that the brother and his partner Yaniv Israel were working for Rafael against C.D on a key sale. The ground-to-air anti-air-system just going through now. Once this was discovered by C.D’s information service, a message was sent internally that the family was not to be involved in any of C.D’s work ever again”.
The correspondence adds, “The Germans were told to get rid of the family. When some in Munich refused, i.e M.T, they were replaced. Our relationship with M.T damaged his future. C.D was also upset with me for being involved”. It concludes by saying, “unfortunately, I think this is all true as even P.H and I met Y.I who told us unless we work with the gentleman he would go to S.K of the USA. Later, Y.I told us it was too late as they were working with S.K”.
The investigating agencies are trying to decode the references to “C.D; S.K; P.H” etc. along with what the “family” and the “brother and his partner” means in the given context.
