Christian Michel’s interim bail plea rejected

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court has dismissed the plea of Christian Michel James, an alleged middleman arrested in connection with the Agustawestland VVIP chopper scam cases, seeking interim bail on the grounds of risk of contracting coronavirus in Tihar jail.

Justice Mukta Gupta, who conducted the hearing through video conferencing, said the apprehension of Michel that because of his vulnerable age and overcrowding in jail, he is likely to contact Covid-19 which may be detrimental to his health, is unfounded. “As regards the apprehension of the petitioner (Michel) being infected by COVID-19 pandemic, it may be noted that the petitioner is lodged in a separate cell with only two other prisoners and thus, is not in a barrack or dormitory where there are a number of prisons. It is not the case of the petitioner that any of the two inmates residing with him are suffering from Covid-19.

Michel is among the three alleged middlemen being probed in the case by the ED and the CBI. The other two are Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa.

The high court said that pursuant to the apex court’s March 23 order, a high powered committee of the high court laid down certain criterias for releasing the prisoners.

It said Michel failed to qualify on three criterias laid down by the high powered committee, that is, being a foreign national, involved in more than one case not being on bail in others and the cases being under Prevention of Corruption Act and Prevention of Money Laundering Act.