Extradited fugitive Christian Michel has claimed that his father Wolfgang Max Richard Michel passed on his contact persons in India when Michel commenced his “business” in India in 1996. Among others, this included one “Mrs Gandhi”, people with direct knowledge of the matter said.The reference to “Mrs Gandhi” by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in its remand application last week caused a major political furore between BJP and Congress. The ED, however, refused to disclose the context in which the reference to “Mrs Gandhi” was made by Michel during custodial interrogation. ET has reliably learnt that the probe agencies, including Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), had grilled Michel about his contacts in India. The alleged middleman in the VVIP chopper deal was also confronted over his father’s references in India.Michel, as first reported by ET on December 11, had claimed that his father knew the late Indira Gandhi, former prime minister of India, who was assassinated in 1984. Michel had gone on to claim that his father was “very close to the Gandhi family.”When asked in the Parliament about who is Wolfgang Max Richard Michel (Michel’s father), he claimed Indira Gandhi replied “she considers him as friend of India.” Presenting this to the court, the CBI sought to peruse records of the Parliament of the year 1982-83.CBI, in its remand application, also claimed that Michel’s father told him that he “knew Indira Gandhi since 1970s and used to meet her.” Michel further revealed that his father was a consultant for Westland Helicopters and helped M/s Westland Helicopters to secure contracts for supply of WG-30 helicopters and MK-42 helicopters to government of India. Significantly, Michel has been described by probe agencies as a “historical consultant” of AgustaWestland helicopters, UK. Michel’s defence lawyer Aljo K Joseph, when contacted, flatly refused to comment saying “I do not have any comments to offer. I will not even utter a word in this case”. However, Michel’s defence lawyer in Dubai had claimed that Michel and his father had personal differences. Michel is currently in custody of ED and will be produced before a special court on Saturday. Last week, the ED claimed that Michel had discreetly slipped a piece of paper seeking guidance from his lawyer Joseph on the follow up questions on “Mrs Gandhi”.Michel, the remand paper read, while shaking hands with Joseph, discreetly slipped a piece of paper, which the lawyer kept in his pocket.After a senior ED official noted this, she confronted Michel and Joseph and discovered that the paper had “the typed form of questions to be asked”. The paper “pertained to a set of questions with regard to follow-up questions on Mrs Gandhi”, read the remand application.Seeking to debar Michel’s lawyer from meeting him during ED’s custody, ED contended “it is clear that there is a conspiracy to shield and/or to tamper with evidence that could be brought forth from the questioning of the accused herein”.Following this, the court restricted the time limit of lawyers to meet Michel to 15 minutes every morning and evening.As first reported by ET, ED is also probing the “modus operandi adopted to influence a German deal” allegedly by Michel and his accomplices.