The Enforcement Directorate on Friday conducted searches on the premises of a Delhi-based businessman Suraj Prakash Mehra in connection with AgustaWestland chopper deal. Mehra is a business associate of fugitive Christian Michel, the main dealer in the scam involved in the political bribing.
The ED sleuths swooped down on the premises of the businessman in south Delhi after he failed to
comply with summons issued to him to present on last week. The probe team said some documents and computer hardware have been seized by the agency.
The businessman, according to investigators, has been involved in creating an overseas firm with Michel along with his daughter and others and hence the agency had asked him to join investigations and record his statement under the provisions of the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMlA).
The agency, sources said, wanted to understand the “financial relationship” of these people who had created an offshore entity with Michel, approximately around the same time when the 12 choppers deal was being finalised and was in final stages of execution.
They said the businessman, who lives in the United Kingdom, had also got some funds through the firm which is said to have been sent by Michel along with a Danish woman who was the middlemen’s aide while working in India. Both ED and CBI had notified an Interpol arrest warrant against Michel.