NEW DELHI: Christian Michel who is a key middleman player in Agusta VVIP helicopters deal and wanted for allegedly organizing bribes to Indian politicians and officials wrote to PM Narendra Modi denying any role in the Agusta chopper scam.
In his letter which was sent in November to PM Narendra Modi, Mr Michel alleged that documents submitted which prove his involvement amounted to “one of the oldest tricks played by many hawala dealers in India, leave a fake black book in your safe falsely naming everyone not involved whom you may have a grudge against in case you are raided”.Mr Michel who is based in the UK. In 2010, the UPA government headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ordered 12 helicopters for use by top politicians for 3,600 crores.
The supplier was AgustaWestland, whose parent company Finmeccanica, reportedly accused of bribing in Italy. Thus the investigation there quickly expanded to include the India deal and now an Italian court ruled that there is evidence that top executives in Italy offered bribes to Indian officers.
But in his letter to Prime Minister Modi, he refutes the incident strongly and asked why, if India was convinced of the merits of its case, it did not challenge the acquittal in Italy in 2014 of Giuseppe Orsi, who had been arrested as head of Finmeccanica.
However, India had cancelled the contract in 2014, due to the charges of charges of corruption which were made in Italy, but the court verdict earlier this month has come as a political turnmoil. Agusta controversy attracted nationwide media coverage and brings a huge embarrassment for the Congress, which is now in the opposition.
Investigators claimed that Mr Michel was hired by Agusta as a consultant to execute the supply of bribes worth 30 million euros in India.
In Parliament today, Arun Jaitely claimed that reports of the PM meeting theItalian premier are false.
Mr Michel has earlier claimed in interviews that Mr Modi asked specifically for the evidence against Sonia Gandhi, the Congress President.
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