india

Updated: Mar 12, 2019 23:43 IST

A Delhi court on Tuesday allowed officers of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to interrogate Christian Michel, an alleged middleman in the Rs 3,600 crore deal for 12 AgustaWestland helicopters, for two hours each on Wednesday and Thursday, in the morning and in the afternoon.

The court also granted permission to Michel’s counsel to be present for half an hour during each slotted interrogation.

Michel’s lawyers Aljo K Joseph and MS Vishnu Sankar, who have filed an application to move Michel from a high security cell to a normal cell in Tihar jail, opposed ED’s plea to interrogate Michel on grounds that he was in isolation for 21 days and was not in a condition to be questioned.

Michel’s counsel submitted that he is allowed to come out of the cell for only one hour each day. For the remaining 23 hours, he stays inside the same cell watching the walls, which is sufficient to destabilise the mental balance of a person, they said.

The court directed the jail authorities to produce the jail records as well as CCTV footage of the previous five days Michel has spent in his cell and ordered them to get Michel medically examined before his interrogation. Michel told the court that former chief of Central Bureau of Investigation officer Rakesh Asthana, when he met him in a Dubai jail, had “threatened” to make his life hell if he did not cooperate with the probe into the AgustaWestland deal.

“In May 2016, when CBI official Rakesh Asthana met me in Dubai, he had threatened that he would make my life hell in jail. That’s what is happening. My next door inmate was?? Chhota Rajan. I don’t understand what crime I have committed to be put (in jail) along (with) those who have killed several people,” Michel said.

Special public prosecutor for ED, NK Matta, said Michel had moved the application to be relocated as an afterthought and that he had not informed the jail superintendent about any problem faced by him in jail.

ED and CBI are probing allegations of corruption and money laundering in the 2007 contract for the purchase of 12 luxury VVIP helicopters for use by top leaders, including the President, Prime Minister and former prime ministers. The deal was cancelled on January 1, 2014 over the allegations of wrongdoing.