NEW DELHI: The AgustaWestland VIP helicopter scam case on Saturday witnessed a dramatic twist with alleged middleman Christian Michel bringing in the name of ‘Mrs Gandhi’ and ‘big man R’ in a special court, which extended his remand by seven days. Mrs Gandhi and big man R were apparent references to Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi, though the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which produced Michel in court, did not specify who he had referred to.
ED counsel L D Singh told the court that Michel, in his communication with Agusta, had said the big man R was the son of an Italian lady who is going to be the next prime minister. “We need to decipher the documents to decrypt such codes,” the counsel said. In their plea, the ED said Michel during interrogation on Thursday had slipped in a folded paper, which his lawyer hid under his mobile phone.
“During medical examination, Christian Michel stood up and turned towards his advocate Aljo Joseph standing next to him and acted like shaking hands with the advocate and saying him goodbye and extended his hands for handshake. It was noticed that Michel secretly handed over a folded paper to his counsel Joseph. Joseph was carrying his mobile phone under which he hid the folded paper and put it discreetly in pocket of his jacket and acted as if nothing took place,” the remand paper read.
Agusta deal middleman abusing legal access: ED
The ED accused Michel of misusing his legal access and sought its discontinuation. However, the court allowed continued legal access but reduced the time from the current 30 minutes to 15 minutes