Was pressured by govt to blame Gandhis in AgustaWestland scandal, says middleman Michel
According to Michel, a number of people contacted him with the proposal that he denounce any member of the Gandhi family and in turn all the charges against him would be dropped.
A day after his explosive interview to India Today, the alleged middleman in the VVIP chopper scam Christian Michel has said that he was put under pressure by Indian investigative agencies to incriminate the Gandhi family. In a letter written to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and shared exclusively with India Today, Christian Michel has alleged that the Modi government tried to cut a deal with him.
EXCLUSIVE: AgustaWestland middleman Christian Michel speaks to India Today
According to Michel, a number of people contacted him with the proposal that he denounce any member of the Gandhi family and in turn all the charges against him would be dropped. In this letter sent to the Registrar of the International Tribunal on 23 December 2015, Michel wrote, "At this time it was made very clear to me through a number of obtuse channels, if I was willing to denounce and member of the Gandhi family relating to the so called VVIP helicopter scandal all charges and investigations against me would be dropped. I responded in the negative and without so much as summons and within one week an arrest warrant was issued against me and within a few weeks after that the Indian authorities then contacted Interpol and used this mechanism to put further pressure on me to agree to their political agenda."
This letter was written to the International Tribunal four months before the Italian court delivered it's verdict in the AgustaWestland corruption scam. While there is an international arrest warrant against Michel, the middleman's letter raises questions on whether pressure was indeed made to bear on him to get him to incriminate the Gandhi family.
Speaking exclusively to India Today from Dubai, Christian Michel said, "I have sued Haschke in Switzerland. Haschke forged the documents that have been given to the Italian courts. I am ready to submit documents and proof related to the case through the Indian embassy."
Michel alleges that the document which has the name of Signora Gandhi and AP was forged by Haschke. When Haschke was interrogated by the Italian prosecutors in November 2013 he said that there were three people present in the meeting where Michel allegedly dictated the names of those to whom bribes were allegedly paid. These three people were Haschke himself, Christian Michel and David Nigel Syms. Syms submitted an affidavit on 7 January 2015 in which he denied that he was present in any such meeting. Michel is now using this affidavit to say that two of the three people who were supposedly present in this meeting in April 2008 are denying that Michel dictated the names of Signora Gandhi and AP.
Unlike what was being claimed by his lawyer, Michel told India Today that there is no question of him wanting to turn approver. He however said that he would soon be appointing an Indian lawyer and was willing to submit all the documents in his possession to an Indian court.
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