The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday arrested James Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the Rs 36,000 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case. Special Judge Arvind Kumar dismissed the bail plea of Michel and remanded to seven days custody of the ED.
Michel was produced before Special Judge Arvind Kumar at Patiala House court where the ED sought his 15 days custody.
Earlier, the court also allowed the ED to interrogate Michel inside the courtroom for 15 minutes after the agency sought his custodial interrogation. He was arrested after that. The court had reserved the order on Michel's bail plea on December 19 and had sent him to judicial custody till December 28.
Michel is in judicial custody and is lodged in Tihar jail. He too has filed a new petition asking the judicature to allocate him a special cell in the prison. In its plea, Michel has stated that the other inmates of the cell are bothering him with too many questions.
The ED had on Friday moved a petition in Delhi's Patiala House Court seeking production warrant of Michel, in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam. The production warrant is an order issued by a criminal court of law to produce a person before the court in connection with criminal proceedings pending against him.
According to the ED charge sheet filed in a court two years back, Michel had received kickbacks to the tune of 30 million Euros from AgustaWestland for the deal involving the purchase of 12 VIP helicopters. The deal, signed in 2007, was scrapped in 2013 following the bribery allegations.
It is submitted that the accused Christian Michel apprehends that the inmates along with him in the cell are trying to interact with him in a detailed manner and asking him questions pertaining to the pending investigation," reads his petition.
"It is submitted that such interactions with the common people/residents in the cell may go against the interest of the investigation as well as the rights available to the accused in the jail. They tried to
mention that the safety of the persons who are interacting with the accused may at
some point of time be in jeopardy," the petition of Michel further reads.