AgustaWestland: Christian Michel seeks free and fair trial after chargesheet was ‘leaked’ to media

British Businessman Christian Michel has moved the CBI Court seeking a ‘free and fair trial’ after the supplementary chargesheet filed in the AgustaWestland case was accessed by media houses..“At the time of filing of chargesheet the counsel for the accused for a copy of the chargesheet. It was objected by the Prosecutor that since the court has not taken cognizance the copy of the chargesheet cannot be supplied to them at that point of time…it appears that ED has clandestinely provided a copy of the media houses which is publishing the same in installments only to sensationalize the issue and prejudice the accused name therein even before cognizance is taken by the Court “.The Application filed through Advocates Aljo Joseph, Vishnu Shankar and Sriram Parakkat claims that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is “not interested in a fair trial in a court of law and only wants trial by media which is causing prejudice to the rights of the accused.”.Further contending that the Government was using Investigating Agencies for political purposes, the application states that the supply of the supplementary chargesheet was the best example of that..The CBI Judge has sought the ED’s response to the plea while listing the matter for hearing on April 6..The ED had filed its supplementary chargesheet against Michel in the AgustaWestland case yesterday. The chargesheet was filed pursuant to the extradition and arrest of Michel in December last year. The ED has claimed that Michel has confessed to receiving kickbacks in the VVIP Chopper deal after liaisoning with party leaders and bureaucrats from the then UPA Government..It has also estimated the total value of kickbacks in the deal at 70 million Euro which were paid to political leaders, Indian Air Force Officers and other middlemen..The supplementary chargesheet also states that ‘AP’, ‘fam’ and ‘party leader’ were involved in the AgustaWestland deal. It is further stated that AP refers to Ahmad Patel, while ‘fam’ refers to ‘family’..Without clarifying the involvement in the case, it is also stated that Michel has confessed to knowing ‘Mrs. Gandhi’ since 1986-87..Apart from naming Michel’s Dubai Firm, Global Services, the chargesheet also names several new entities which were used to route the kickbacks in the VVIP chopper deal. Michel’s alleged associate David Syms also features as an accused in the chargehseet..In its earlier chargesheet filed in July 2018, ED had named former Indian Air Force (IAF) chief SP Tyagi, lawyer Gautam Khaitan, Italian middlemen Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschka and several others in the case..Michel was named for the second time by the ED in its chargesheet in June 2016. The CBI had named Michel, Tyagi, Khaitan and others in its charge sheet in the case in September 2017..The case will be heard next on April 6..Bar & Bench is available on WhatsApp. For real-time updates on stories, click here to subscribe to our WhatsApp.