Asked to implicate Sonia, Ahmed Patel: AgustaWestland middleman Christian Michel
New Delhi: A day after British arms dealer Christian Michel was granted bail in Dubai, the AgustaWestland intermediary accused Indian investigators of offering him a deal that if he named UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi he stood a good chance of securing a clean chit in the alleged Rs 3,600-crore scam.
Michel, a British national, is suspected of handling and routing over 60 million euros for AgustaWestland kickbacks. Investigators say that he made about 300 trips to India between 1997 and 2013.
According to the ED dossier, he used Global Services FZE, a Dubai-based firm, to park and launder bribes. However, Michel has denied any wrongdoing.
On Monday, a Dubai court hearing his extradition case released him on bail after 49 days of detention.
In an exclusive telephone interview to India Today, Michel claimed that he could produce at least six witnesses and hotel security footage to prove his allegations that he was pressured to testify against Gandhi.
On July 19, lawyer Rosemary Patrizi had made similar charges against Indian probe agencies while her client was in custody. The CBI has already denied the accusations. "It seems that some attempts are being made to divert attention and escape, but this will not help as we are following judicial route based on the evidence we have," CBI Abhishek Dayal insisted in the wake of Patrizi's allegations.
This time, the charges came from the horse's mouth.
"In May, a delegation came from India to meet me. I agreed to meet them," Michel said to India Today. "There was one meeting at the Grand Hayat hotel and two meetings at the Palace hotel in Dubai. They gave me a document, which was about 20 pages long, and asked me to sign it," he claimed.
Michel alleged that he refused to oblige investigators after going through the papers.
"After reading two or three pages, I told them that I could not sign it because it wasn't correct. It was talking about things that hadn't happened," Michel, who had been detained on June 12 in Dubai, alleged.
Asked to elaborate on his claims, he alleged that investigators wanted him to name the Gandhis and Congress MP Ahmed Patel in a notation on a document. "In the last meaning, which took place at about 11 o'clock in the evening, we went through all the files and there was nothing. Then they pulled out a budget sheet, which wasn't written by me, dictated by me," he claimed. "I was not even present when it was being written. All they wanted at the bottom was a notation of the family, which meant Mrs Gandhi and her family and AP, which meant Ahmed Patel. They said 'if you could give us this, everything would be irrelevant'".
The alleged budget sheet, Michel added, was originally written by Guido Hashcke, another middleman in the chopper contract.
He sought to take a high moral ground when asked why he did not accept the alleged offer. "To destroy people you don't know, who have done nothing wrong and have never hurt you in anyway it's just something you can't do. I drew a line. I have done many bad things in life but I could never do this to a woman who has suffered so much. Her husband has been murdered; her mother-in-law has been murdered and on top of that I just could not do it," Michel claimed.
So if he was trying to protect himself by "protecting" Sonia Gandhi? "I am protecting myself with facts, which I must and not anyone else. And if other people benefit in this process, I cannot do anything about it. But I am certainly not doing it for any political party." Michel insisted.
Asked about the identity of officials who offered him the so-called deal, he claimed "they (Indian officials) never gave their names. But if you are asking me if I have any witness to these meetings then I have at least six witnesses, there was a CID official, an Interpol official, one man of ministerial rank and there is the hotel security footage. So if anyone tries to deny it they are going to be in deep trouble."
Asked why he though his bail hearing in the Dubai court had no representation from the India agencies, Michel claimed "they were not going to attend the bail hearing because they would have received some of the questions they couldn't answer and I knew that. It was confirmed by their non-attendance."
He also vowed to fight his case in the UAE.
"This (UAE) is a country of law. So I am going to stay here, I am going to fight here and I am going to win, I am not running," he claimed.
Michel argued that CBI "does not have any evidence" in connection with the AgustaWestland scandal. "When I was arrested last year, all they needed to do was to send over the evidence and I would have been in India a year ago and the gentleman who was interrogating me continued saying that we have more evidence. If you have more evidence why not show it," Michel challenged. "I was going to tell them where they need to look, It's a bribery scandal involving Italy not India, their star witness Haschke knows what went on, but now that offer to help is off the table, because I don't trust them (Indians)."
Meantime, the Congress issued a stinging reaction over Michel's claims.
"This is the limit of misuse of government agencies to influence the opposition leadership," Congress leader RPN Singh alleged. "India Today had earlier exposed this through his lawyer and sister but now Michel has himself given this statement. Such things also bring disrepute to Indian Investigative agencies at a global stage," he added.
courtesy : indiatoday.in
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Death toll from Israeli strikes in northeast Lebanon rises from 8 to 24, Lebanese news agency says
Deir al-Balah, Nov 1: Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed at least 24 people in northeastern Lebanon, the country's news agency said, raising the death toll from eight there.
It was the latest deadly toll in the area since the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah escalated last month.
Israel's military has said that its operation in Lebanon is targeting Hezbollah's military infrastructure.
Lebanon's state National news Agency reported four airstrikes in different villages across country's northeast, saying rescuers were still searching for survivors in Younine, a town in the Bekaa Valley, from the rubble of a targeted house.
Hussein Haj Hassan, a Lebanese lawmaker representing the region in Baalbek-Hermel region, said that 60,000 people have already fled their homes in the area due to Israeli bombardment.
