New Delhi, March 04 (HS): Justice Swarna kanta Sharma’s bench of Delhi High Court has granted bail to Christian Michel in the money laundering case in the AgustaWestland scam case. After this order of the High Court, the way for Michel to come out of jail has been cleared, because the Supreme Court has already granted bail to Michel in the case related to CBI. The High Court had reserved the decision on February 28 in the money laundering case.

During the hearing, the ED had opposed Michel’s bail plea in the money laundering case and said that there is a danger of Christian Michel fleeing and if he flees once, it will be very difficult to extradite him again for investigation. During the hearing, the lawyer appearing on behalf of Michel had said that Michel’s passport has expired. Under the money laundering law, there is a provision for a maximum punishment of seven years and Michel has spent more than six years in jail. Michel’s lawyer had said that the Supreme Court has granted bail in the CBI case.

In fact, a case of Rs 3600 crore scam has been registered in the purchase of 12 helicopters from AgustaWestland. Earlier, the Supreme Court had rejected Michel’s bail plea on February 7, 2023. The ED arrested Michel in January 2019 in this Rs 3600 crore scam. Michel was extradited from Dubai and brought to India in December 2018. On October 23, 2020, the court took cognizance of the supplementary charge sheet filed by the CBI. 13 have been made accused in the charge sheet. The CBI had filed a supplementary charge sheet on September 19, 2020.

13 people have been made accused in the charge sheet, including Christian Michel, Rajiv Saxena, AgustaWestland International director G Saponaro and Sandeep Tyagi, a relative of the then Air Force chief SP Tyagi. Former CAG and former Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma has not been made an accused in this charge sheet because the CBI has not yet received any approval to prosecute him.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar