Stung by the claim of the Enforcement Directorate that alleged middleman Christian Michel has implicated UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in the VVIP chopper scam, Congress on Sunday said it would probe Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Government’s “collusion” with AgustaWestland if it came to  power in 2019.

Pointing out that after the BJP came to power at the Centre, the Defence Ministry lifted the ban on AgustaWestland and allowed it to bid for 100 naval utility helicopters.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, “ The ED may save the Modi Government today, but when it is voted out of power in 2019, we are committed to fully investigate PM Modi and his Government’s collusion with AgustaWestland,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters.

The attack came a day after the probe agency, investigating the AgustaWestland case, told a court that accused middleman Christian Michel has made a reference to “Mrs Gandhi”.

Surjewala alleged that the Government was pressuring Michel to make a “false” statement against the Gandhi family and dared it to place in the public domain any such evidence it has against the Congress leadership. He accused the Government of trying to hide its own “collusion” in AgustaWestland case by creating a lot of noise.

“They are using Christian Michel as a sounding board to defend its own wrong doings and misdeeds. Panicking and running scared, PM Modi and his Government are now raking up controversies to hide its own Government’s connivance,” he said.

“It is now clear that the ‘chowkidaar is daagdaar’ (the watchman is tainted),” he alleged. Surjewala also posed a set of six questions to the government and asked why the Defence Ministry ended the ban on AgustaWestland in July 2014 and made the company a part of the ‘Make in India’ programme. Meanwhile, senior congress leader and the former finance and home minister P Chidambaram said if the government, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the media have their way in this country, cases will be tried even on TV channels.

“Even kangaroo courts hold trials in a courtroom. Our new ‘improved’ system will surpass kangaroo courts and deliver justice on TV channels,” he said in the first of a series of tweets.

“What ED says will be oral evidence, any piece of paper ED produces will be documentary evidence, and what the TV channel pronounces will be the judgement,” he said.

Chidambaram said further, the Criminal Procedure Code and the Evidence Act will not apply on such claims.