AgustaWestland case middleman Christian Michel granted 15 minutes time in a week to speak to family, lawyers

New Delhi: A special CBI Court on Monday granted 15-minute time in a week to AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case middleman Christian Michel to speak to his family and lawyers.

Christian Michel James, a middleman in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal, was arrested in July last year in Dubai. Sources had suggested that James was detained on July 12 for questioning. James, who hails from Britain, was reportedly detained by Indian probe agencies.

Notably, the Enforcement Directorate did not name the middleman in the chargesheet that it had filed in the Rs 3,600 crore VVIP chopper deal.

The ED named former Indian Air Force chief SP Tyagi and 33 others in the chargesheet. While filing the chargesheet under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the ED informed the magistrate that money was laundered through "multiple foreign companies". The court was told that "foreign companies were used as fronts to park alleged kickbacks".

In 2017, the Patiala House Court in Delhi had issued non bailable warrant against Michel. The ED had then told the court that the middle ran a shell company named Media Exim and had facilitated transactions of kickbacks in the deal using the same.

The Enforcement Directorate found that of the alleged kickbacks received by James, Rs 6.33 crore was routed to India through his shell company Media Exim from his Dubai-based Global Services FZE.

James allegedly received around Rs 225 crore as kickbacks from AgustaWestland for the deal inked for the purchase of 12 helicopters in the guise of transactions for performing multiple work contracts in the country.