The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to take up the bail petition of Christian James Michel, an accused in the corruption case involving the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam, in relation with two cases filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against him, on December 6.
Michel had moved the Apex Court, challenging the Delhi High Court order of dismissing his bail pleas in both the cases.
Christian Michel was arrested by the ED in December 2018 and has been in custody ever since. He has applied for bail several times but all his applications were dismissed. Christian Michel is an alleged middleman who is being investigated by the ED as well as CBI in the VVIP Chopper Scam.
CBI has alleged that there was a loss of Rs 2666 crore to the exchequer in the VVIP Chopper deal and ED has alleged that Christian Michel received around Rs 225 crore from Agusta Westland during the deal.
Earlier on September 2, 2021, the Delhi High Court had granted time to Michel to file some additional documents on record in connection with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) cases against him.
The Single-Judge Bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri was also informed that ED and CBI have filed their counter affidavit, but the same was not on record. During the hearing, petitioner’s Counsel AOR Aljo K Joseph submitted that he needed some time to file some additional documents and rejoinder affidavit.
The Counsel for ED and CBI submitted that the reply has been filed by them, but it was not on record. The Court passed directions to bring reply on record before the next date of hearing.
The FIR registered by CBI mentioned the allegation of bribery involved in the purchase of 12 VVIP AgustaWestland helicopters by the Government of India.
According to the plea, the allegation was that the Air Headquarters of Indian Air Force, after obtaining approval from Raksha Mantri, issued request for proposal to 11 vendors for procurement of eight helicopters for VVIP, replacing the existing MI-8 helicopters.
The court of Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri had previously issued notice on July 19, 2021, after hearing the fresh bail plea filed by Christian Michel James.
The court granted time to the Counsel of petitioner to file additional documents before the next date of hearing, which is October 11.
The Counsels for respondents were directed to bring the reply on record.
The petitioner mentioned that he was illegally taken to custody by the Government of India and the executing agency CBI and deported from Dubai on December 4, 2018. The illegal detention and deportation and custody of the applicant was assailed by the applicant before the United Nation Human Rights council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNHRC WGAD).
The plea further stated that, “The deprivation of liberty of Christian James Michel by the government of India, being in contravention of articles 3, 9, 10 and 11 (1) of the universal declaration of human rights and articles 9 (3); 10 (1); and 14 (1)–(2) and (3) (b)–(d) and (g) of the international covenant on civil and political rights.”