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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2 US aircraft go down, 1 crew member missing as war in Iran takes dramatic turn
Dubai (AP): One US service member was rescued, and at least one was missing after two US military planes went down in separate incidents, including the first shoot-down since the war began nearly five weeks ago.
It was the first time US aircraft had been downed in the conflict and came just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national address that the US has “beaten and completely decimated Iran.”
One fighter jet was shot down in Iran, officials said. A US crew member from that plane was rescued, but a second was missing, and a US military search-and-rescue operation was underway.
Separately, Iranian state media said a US A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by Iranian defence forces. A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation, said it was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down.
The war, now entering its sixth week, is destabilising economies around the world as Iran responds to the US and Israeli attacks by targeting the Gulf region's energy infrastructure and tightening its grip on oil and natural gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
Here is the latest:
Iran executes two more members of an exile group
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The Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency said Saturday that the two men who were hanged belonged to the Iranian exile group Mujahedin-e-Khalq.
The agency said Abul-Hassan Montazer and Vahid Bani-Amirian were convicted of “being members of a terrorist group.”
This brings to six the total number of MEK members executed since the start of the war.
Activists and rights groups say Iran routinely holds closed-door trials in which defendants are unable to challenge the accusations they face.
Israeli military says it struck key infrastructure in Iranian capital
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The Israeli military said on Saturday that its air force struck ballistic and anti-aircraft missile storage sites in Tehran.
It said the strikes a day earlier included weapons manufacturing sites as well as military research and development facilities in the Iranian capital.
It said the strikes are part of an ongoing phase to increase damage to Iran's “core systems and foundations.”
The Oracle building in Dubai was damaged by drone debris
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Authorities in Dubai said the facades of two buildings were damaged by debris from intercepted drones, including one belonging to US tech firm Oracle. No injuries were reported.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard has threatened to attack Oracle and 17 other US companies after accusing them of being involved in “terrorist espionage” operations in Iran.
Previous Iranian drone strikes caused damage to three Amazon Web Services facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
365 service members have been wounded in action in the Iran War
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As of Friday, 247 of the wounded were Army soldiers, 63 were Navy sailors, 19 were Marines and 36 were Air Force airmen, according to Pentagon data available online.
It is unclear if the data includes any of the service members involved in the downing of two combat aircraft reported Friday.
Most of the wounded — 200 — were also mid to senior enlisted troops, 85 were officers, and 80 were junior enlisted service members.
The current death toll remains at 13 service members killed in combat.
