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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Rishabh Pant's troubles continue as Punjab Kings push LSG towards exit door
Dharamsala, May 4 (PTI): Rishabh Pant lost the grip on his bat and the match simultaneously as Punjab Kings rode on heroics from the two 'Singhs' -- Prabhsimran and Arshdeep -- to literally push Lucknow Super Giants to the brink of elimination with a 37-run win in an IPL match here on Sunday.
It was Prabhsimran's 48-ball 91 that formed the cornerstone of Punjab Kings' unassailable 236 for 5 and any hopes of a remarkable chase was nipped in the bud by Arshdeep's (3/16 in 4 overs) now familiar Powerplay spell which summarily destroyed the opposition top-order.
This time, he got the three top run getters -- Mitchell Marsh (0), Aiden Markram (13) and the ever-dangerous Nicholas Pooran (6) -- to swing the match decisively in Punjab's favour. Ayush Badoni's (74 off 40 balls) effort was a good one albeit it came for a losing cause.
LSG were finally restricted to 199 for 7 in 20 overs and even if they win their last three games and get to 16 points from 14 games, their net run-rate can make things difficult for them.
Punjab Kings are now placed second with 15 points from 11 games and one more win could possibly clinch a place in top four for them.
But what is becoming an eyesore is LSG's Rs 27 crore worth skipper Pant's inexplicable approach which has fetched him a dismal 128 runs in 11 innings at a sub-100 strike-rate (99.22).
On the day, he scored 18 off 17 balls and that he is completely out of sync was evident in the manner he tried to throw the proverbial kitchen sink at an Azmatullah Omarzai delivery. There was no control in his shot as the bat took off on parabolic curve towards square leg and the ball went towards deep point.
Pant's misery was a testimony of LSG's wretched campaign that was lost at the auction table when the owner decided to go with a sub-standard bowling attack based on a half-fit talented pacer Mayank Yadav.
Mayank has already lost at least 10-15 yards of pace post rehabilitation under the watch of Nitin Patel at the National Cricket Academy.
On Sunday, he went for 60 runs off four overs with half a dozen of sixes struck off his bowling.
The pint-sized Prabhsimran packed a mean punch in his strokes as he blasted his way to a 48-ball 91 with the help of six fours and seven sixes.
The Punjab keeper-batter should have got his second IPL hundred but an ambitious switch hit off Digvesh Rathi saw him head back to the pavilion, nine runs short of what would have been a deserving milestone.
Towards the end, Shashank Singh scored 33 off 15 balls to take PBKS to what looked like an unassailable total. There were 16 sixes hit by Pujab Kings with 13 coming off pacers.
Prabhsimran was initially a passive partner as it was Australian Jos Inglis who launched the first attack with a hat-trick of sixes off Mayank Yadav, whose speed has decreased by at least 15 kmph post his intense rehab under Nitin Patel at the BCCI's erstwhile National Cricket Academy to recover from back injury.
However, once Inglis was dismissed, Prabhsimran, along with skipper Shreyas Iyer (45 off 25 balls), took control of the game. They were only helped by some atrocious fielding from Avesh Khan, who would probably go down as the worst fielder in the 18-year history of IPL.
Adding insult to injury, Prabhsimran took the tall MP fast bowler to the cleaners as he was pulled over mid-wicket for back-to-back maximums. Khan went for 57 in four overs and if around 15 runs due to his misfielding is added, he caused the maximum damage for his team.
The duo of Prabhsimran and Iyer added 78 runs in 7.5 overs before Rathi, LSG's best bowler on view, became the first spinner in the current season to account for Punjab Kings skipper's wicket.
But Prabhsimran continued like a man possessed and LSG bowlers were guilty of feeding to his strengths throughout the innings.
