The Enforcement Directorate has told Delhi’s Patiala House court that the Christian Michel has taken the name of “the son of the Italian lady” and said that the person is going to be “the next prime minister of the country”, a clear cut reference to Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Earlier, Michel has revealed through his sister that Mrs. Gandhi mentioned in the case may be former Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
The middlemen involved in the deal were Christian Michel, Guido Haschkle and Carlo Gerosa. Michel was arrested in UAE in February 2017. He was brought to India with the guidance from National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval and is now being interrogated by the agencies. He was produced in Delhi high court after seven days in the custody of ED. “We need to decipher who is this ‘big man’ referred to as ‘R’ is in the communication between Christian Michel and other people. We need to confront Michel with other people to decipher this,” said ED to the court. The investigation agency also asked to extend the custody of Michel as he is yet to reveal ‘the true nature of transaction’ through which money was laundered.
The access of Michel to his counsel was Mr Aljo K Joseph was reduced to only 15 minutes because he secretly handed him a folded paper which was regarding ‘the follow up question to be asked on ‘Mrs Gandhi’.
The name of Mrs Gandhi got repeated mention in exchange of information between middlemen. Christian Michel wrote a letter to Peter Hulet, India region head of the company on 15th March 2008 saying “Dear Peter, since Mrs. Gandhi is the driving force behind the VIP, she will no longer fly with MI8. Mrs. Gandhi and her closest advisers are the aims of the High Commissioner, senior adviser Prime Minister Manmohan Singh obviously the main figure, then there’s Ahmed Patel Secretary.” It was also reveled in CBI investigation that Michel’s father was a friend of Indira Gandhi, former prime minister of India and mother-in-law of Sonia Gandhi. “His father knew late Indira Gandhi since 1970s and was very close to Gandhi family,” read the CBI document.
The UPA government signed a deal with AgustaWestland in February 2010 to purchase 12 VVIP helicopters in 3,600 crore rupees for use by top officials of Indian government like the president, prime ministers, and other important functionaries. However, the deal was scrapped in 2014 when it turned out that middleman hired by the company paid bribes worth Rs. 423 crores to UPA government officials, other functionaries like Ahmed Patel and Indian Air Force chief SP Tyagi. AgustaWestland is a wholly owned subsidiary of Italian company Leonardo S.P.A. which was previously known as Finmeccanica.
The timing of the revelation could not be worse for the Congress as it desperately tries to build a narrative of fictional ‘Rafale scam’. They want to make Rafale deal, ‘a Bofors scam’ moment for the BJP in order to gain relevance but so far they have only suffered abject failure in their efforts. The revelations by Christian Michel would give the BJP an issue to target the Congress party that too based on solid pieces of evidence.