Court gives CBI Michel’s custody for 5 more days
AGUSTA Federal agency tells court it is willing to grant consular access to the British national
NEWDELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday expressed willingness to allow consular access to British businessman Christian James Michel, 57, six days after he was extradited from Dubai.
Michel is accused of bribing officials to secure a chopper deal for Anglo-italian firm Agustawestland in 2010. The deal was cancelled three years later.
“The CBI’S Interpol division informed the external affairs ministry that the agency is ready to grant consular access to the UK high commission officials to Michel,’’ said CBI spokesman Abhishek Dayal. “Now we await response from the high commission, which will be routed through the ministry of external affairs, following which mutually suitable time and date for consular access will be decided.”
The high commission had sought the access on Wednesday last. Separately, a special court extended Michel’s CBI custody by another five days after the agency’s said Michel was not cooperating with his interrogators. The CBI told special judge Arvind Kumar that Michel was “evasive” and that they want more time to confront him over the evidences received from five countries. The CBI had sought a nine-day custody when he was produced before the court at the end of his five-day remand.
The CBI’S special public prosecutor D P Singh informed the court that the evidences comprised thousands of documents. “We have shown him some correspondence… But we still require his custody to confront him with documents,” he said.
Singh added they were making a list of witnesses and three days were required to confront Michel with them “to unearth the deep-rooted conspiracy” and to identify his accomplices, including Indian Air Force officials, bureaucrats and politicians. Michel’s lawyer, Aljo K Joseph, objected to the further remand saying there was no incriminating evidence against his client. He called it is nothing but “torture” and added he was constrained to write a letter to the high commission on Saturday. Joseph sought the court’s permission to allow Michel meet lawyer, Santrolli Rosemary Patrizi Dos Anjos, who has repre- sented him in Italian and other foreign courts. He said that Anjos wants to hand over some documents to Michel.
Singh objected to the plea. “If she (Anjos) has to hand over some documents to Michel, she can give them to the lawyers visiting him twice a day. She is a foreign lawyer and cannot be allowed to meet Michel. We have allowed consular access to him…,” he said.
The court restricted the visits of Michel’s lawyers to see him to twice daily for half-an-hour.
The restrictions were imposed after Singh pleaded the that lawyers should be allowed to meet him only once a day because the visits were “breaking their rhythm of questioning”. CBI’S joint director A Sai Manohar, who led the Indian team for Monday’s hearing in London proved second time lucky for the agency. He led the CBI team that brought back Christian Michel from Dubai after his extradition was ordered. Before this at the time of deportation of gangster Chota Rajan from Indonesia, he was deputy director of the agency’s Interpol division that coordinated the operation to bring back Rajan to India, though he didn’t go to Indonesia himself.