NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday rejected a plea filed by alleged middleman Christian Michel James in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam case seeking his release from jail.
A bench of justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja said that the plea, which also challenged provisions of the India-UAE extradition treaty, had no merit. James, a British national, assailed Article 17 of the treaty, signed in 1999, which allows the requesting state (in this case India) to prosecute extradited persons not only for the specific offence for which extradition was done, but also for connected offences.
The petition claimed that an extradited person could be prosecuted only for the offences for which extradition took place, and not for connected offences. He was extradited from Dubai in December 2018, following which he was arrested by the CBI and the ED.
In his petition, James also challenged a trial court order of August 7, 2025, by which his application under Section 436A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) for his release from jail was rejected.
Petition has no merit: HC
A bench of justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja said that the plea, which also challenged provisions of the India-UAE extradition treaty, had no merit