Agustawestland middleman Christian Michel extradited to India
New Delhi: Christian Michel James, a British national and a middleman, on Tuesday was extradited to India, a development that comes as a boost to Indian agencies investigating the Rs 3,600 crore Agustawestland VVIP chopper deal case.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took him under his custody as soon as he arrived at the Indira Gandhi International Airport around 11 p.m. in a special aircraft. James, 57, was accompanied by some CBI, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Ministry of External Affairs officials. After the immigration procedure, he will be taken to the CBI headquarters at south Delhi’s Lodhi Road area. The central probe agency in a press note said the entire extradition operation was conducted under the guidance of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and coordination of interim CBI Director M. Nageswara Rao.
A team lead by Joint CBI Director A. Sai Manohar had been to Dubai to extradite James, who has been avoiding criminal proceedings in India in Agustawestland case. The action comes after the Court of Cassation in UAE had in November upheld a lower court order which said that Michel could be extradited to India.
According to the report, James was kept under detention at the Dubai Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) as per the Indian government’s request. The extradition is undertaken in coordination with the Interpol and the CID.
James is one of three middlemen being probed in the case by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the scam.
In January, the ED had lodged a request with the UAE authorities for extraditing James. Both the ED and the CBI had filed chargesheets in bribery cases in Indian courts and non-bailable warrants had been issued against the accused.