india

Updated: Apr 26, 2019 11:23 IST

A Delhi court on Thursday reserved its order on a plea by Christian Michel, the alleged middleman arrested in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case, seeking “free and fair” trial after the supplementary charge sheet was leaked to the media.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on April 11 had submitted a status report in a sealed cover, informing the court about the alleged leak. A day later, the court sought a report from the court staff regarding the number of charge sheet copies that were filed by the probe agency.

Special public prosecutor for ED, DP Singh, had told the court that there was nothing wrong if the media published or broadcast the contents of the charge sheet as the court has already taken cognizance of the case and only the fresh accused had to be summoned. Responding to ED, the defence counsel filed a rejoinder and said that while, ED refused to give them a copy of the charge sheet, the same was shown on television channels.

Michel’s lawyer argued there was a media trial because of the leakage of the charge sheet.

The defence counsel argued that the “entire act of publicising the charge sheet without the due process of law” amounts to contempt of court.

He also opposed the submission made in sealed cover and said that “this practice is neither transparent nor conducive of the concept of a fair trial”. Michel’s counsel had moved the application on April 5 alleging that the ED “clandestinely” leaked the charge sheet to media before the court could take cognizance of it, to “sensationalize the issue”. The court has reserved its order for May 3.