5 days Ago
A Delhi court on Wednesday sought an explanation from the Tihar Jail superintendent after being informed that Christian Michel James, accused in the AgustaWestland case, was lodged in the same ward as an undertrial with a history of misconduct. Special judge Sanjeev Aggarwal passed the direction after a report from the director general (prisons) revealed that Michel was sharing a ward with Shahnawaz, an undertrial with 41 complaints against him since 2020. The court had earlier sought a report following Michel’s “grave” allegation that attempts were being made to poison him in jail.
Taking serious note of the report, the court directed the jail superintendent to appear in person and explain why Michel was kept with a “desperate accused person.” According to the report, Shahnawaz has 41 complaints against him inside jail since 2020, and he has received adequate punishment for these offences from the prison authority. The matter will next be heard on April 24.
Michel is accused of being a middleman in the AgustaWestland deal and faces charges under Section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. During Wednesday’s hearing, Michel told the court he hadn’t received a table fan in two months. The judge, noting the intense heat in Delhi, directed that he be provided one, stating, “He is still an undertrial.
.. and he’s from abroad.
” Michel also reflected on his incarceration, saying, “Jail is terrible and dangerous, but it has been a very good experience for me.” He further told the court he preferred remaining in judicial custody and attending the trial via video conferencing due to safety concerns. “Every time I step out of prison, something happens,” he said.
The court, however, rejected his plea, noting that it could not keep someone in jail indefinitely and must impose bail conditions. CBI had alleged that senior officials in PMO, SPG, and Air Force agreed in 2004 to tweak the mandatory service ceiling of helicopters to favour AgustaWestland. This allegedly caused a loss of €398.
21 million (approx. ₹ 2,666 crore) to the government in a deal worth €556.262 million ( ₹ 3,726.
9 crore). The ED is probing the money trail linked to kickbacks in the deal. Michel was extradited from the UAE in December 2018 and remained in custody until he was granted bail this year.
The Delhi high court granted him bail in March in ED’s money laundering probe, following a Supreme Court order in February that granted bail in the CBI’s corruption case. While doing so, the apex court observed that CBI had not completed the trial despite filing two chargesheets, and key documents had yet to be shared with Michel. He was released after furnishing a personal bond of ₹ 5 lakh and one surety of the same amount, as directed by the Delhi high court.
Michel had earlier told the trial court that Delhi was like a “larger prison” for him, as his family could not visit, and that he feared for his life outside jail. ED, however, had opposed his bail, arguing that Michel was a flight risk with no roots in India, and that conditions under Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act had not been fulfilled. Michel, on the other hand, contended that he had already spent six years in custody for an offence with a maximum sentence of seven years and that the trial had not even begun.
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