Chopper scam case: Christian Michel's CBI custody extended by 5 days

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Monday extended CBI custody of Chrishtian Michel, the alleged AgustaWestland middleman, by another 5 days. The court had earlier on December 5 remanded Michel in CBI custody for five days.During the hearing, the CBI told the court that Michel was not cooperating with the probe and was evasive in giving answers.At the outset, Michel withdrew his earlier bail plea and filed fresh detailed bail application.Michel was extradited from Dubai after clearance from the UAE government on December 4. He is one of the three middlemen being probed in the AgustaWestland chopper case, apart from Italian Guido Haschke (US and Italian nationality) and Carlo Gerosa (Swiss and Italian nationality).It was alleged that he had entered into a criminal conspiracy with co-accused persons, which included then IAF chief SP Tyagi and his family members, and the public servants had abused their official positions by reducing service ceiling of the VVIPs helicopter from 6,000 m to 4,500 m.The reduction in ceiling made AgustaWestland eligible for contract worth 556.262 million Euros, which was awarded to it by the defence ministry on February 08, 2010, for procurement of 12 VVIP helicopters.On January 1, 2014, India scrapped the contract with Italy-based Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of paying kickbacks to securing the deal.