Jailed Agusta middleman’s son calls for his release; questions additional charges, cites Nirav Modi case

TOI correspondent from London: The family of British national Christian Michel, the alleged middleman incarcerated in Delhi’s Tihar Jail for more than seven years in the AgustaWestland chopper scam case, has stepped up efforts to secure his freedom, with his son Alois Michel calling upon India to “follow its own extradition laws” and release his father. He also compared his father’s case with that of Nirav Modi, the fugitive diamond merchant accused of defrauding PNB to the tune of Rs 13,000 crore before fleeing to the UK.

Speaking to TOI over the phone from Madrid, Alois (28) said the Indian govt, in order to secure Modi’s extradition from the UK, promised that he would not be interrogated or face additional charges in India. Yet, in his father’s case, they were doing the opposite, he added.

Extradited from the UAE in Dec 2018, Michel has been behind the bars longer than the maximum sentence that could be imposed under Indian laws for the offence of bribing officials to secure the helicopter supply contract for AgustaWestland in 2010. However, the Indian authorities have levelled an additional charge of forgery of valuable security, which carries a life sentence.

Michel (64) is contesting this, alleging it is a breach of section 21 of India’s Extradition Act, which states that additional charges other than those a person is extradited for, cannot be levelled. His petition challenging the move was dismissed in April by Delhi high court, which ruled that Article 17 of the India-UAE extradition treaty allowed for “connected offences” to be added. The Supreme Court is slated to hear the matter in July.

“If they follow section 21 (Extradition Act), my father should have been released last year as he is not accused of anything else and had served the maximum penalty for that charge (bribery) by last July,” Alois said. “All my father has asked for is exactly what India is promising Nirav Modi. Simply for India to follow its own law. That’s it. No special treatment. No political favour. Just respecting their own law and, therefore, applying the same guarantee India is giving to a British court (in Modi’s case).”

Alois said the family had been seeking a meeting with Indo-Pacific minister Seema Malhotra for months. His brother Alaric is meeting her on Wednesday, after she finally conveyed her availability, he added.

The Michels are also miffed with the UK govt. Alois said his father “is fed up with not seeing the UK govt taking any action”.

However, a spokesperson of the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “The UK Govt is committed to seeing Christian Michel’s case resolved as soon as possible. We continue to provide consular assistance to Mr Michel and his family and have consistently raised his case directly with the Govt of India.”

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