Christian Michel, an alleged middleman in the scandal-tainted Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal, has said Indian investigating agencies put pressure on him to incriminate the Gandhi family. In a letter written to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and shared exclusively with India Today, Michel has alleged that the Narendra Modi government tried to cut a deal with him.

EXCLUSIVE: AgustaWestland middleman Christian Michel speaks to India Today



"At this time it was made very clear to me through a number of obtuse channels, if I was willing to denounce any member of the Gandhi family relating to the so called VVIP helicopter scandal all charges and investigations against me would be dropped," he said in the communication in December.

"I responded in the negative and without so much as a summons and within one week an arrest warrant was issued against me and within a few weeks after that the Indian authorities then contacted Interpol and used this mechanism to put further pressure on me to agree to their political agenda."

This letter was written four months before an Italian court delivered its verdict in the AgustaWestland corruption case, saying bribes of up to 30 million euros were paid in India.

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