Christian Michel has claimed that his team and he had access to sensitive inside information about the government of India at the time of the deal and the level of corruption that had spread within the then ruling Congress.
New Delhi: Christian Michel James and Guido Haschke with his associate Carlo Gerosa — through their respective chains — had paid Euro 70 million to officers of the Indian Air Force (IAF) defence officials, bureaucrats, mediapersons and political leaders of the “ruling party” “in lieu of their decision influencing the deal of purchase of helicopter in favour of AgustaWestland,” the Enforcement Directorate has told the special CBI court.
In revelations more shocking than the payment of kickbacks, is the admission by Christian Michel that his team and he had access to sensitive and classified inside information of the government of India at the time of the deal and that allegedly the tentacles of corruption had spread to the very top of the political structure of the then ruling Congress.
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Christian Michel’s corruption, according to the ED documents submitted to the court, and which MyNation has accessed, “is corroborated with contemporaneous evidences in the form of dispatches containing details of events of procurement process of the VIP deal sent to top officials of AgustaWestland, Italy.”
According to a dispatch, dated March 15, 2008, Michel claimed: “As Mrs. Gandhi is the driving force behind the VIP, she will not fly any more in the Mi-8. Mrs. Gandhi and her closest advisers are the people the High Commissioner should target. Key Advisers 1) Manmohan Singh 2) Ahmed Patel 3) Pranab Mukherjee 4) M. Veerappa Moily 5) Oscar Fernandes 6) M.K. Narayanan 7) Vinay Singh.”
While the ED has claimed to have established that kickbacks were paid to seal the VVIP chopper deal in favour of AgustaWestland, the agency told the court that Michel told them during interrogation that ‘AP’ meant Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat Ahmed Patel and the abbreviation ‘Fam’ stood for the ‘Family’.
MyNation was the first to report this, way back on December 29, 2018.
Also Read: Christian Michel names ‘Mrs Gandhi’ and ‘Italian lady’ in AgustaWestland scam: ED to court
In yet another dispatch, dated October 1, 2009, Michel records that the Italian Lady’s son “will be asked this weekend to raise this matter with his mother as the mother is certainly not aware of all the facts.”
“The procurement paper has been sent to all 5 cabinet members – home ministry, finance ministry, foreign ministry, defence ministry, PM and the party leader. None of them have had any problems but for Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee,” one of the dispatches said.
Michel, in order to fix the FM, claims to have met with Mukherjee’s secretary and also reached out to him through “party leader”.
“We have sent a mutual friend to see the FM. The FM explained that he felt that he has been ignored in this decision-making process and is being harassed into signing. He is an old friend and maybe we did not treat him with enough respect. The party leader will speak to him and we expect to calm him down,” Michel said in the dispatch.
Another dispatch from August 11, 2009, cited by the ED shows that Michel knew what would happen even inside the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).
“On Friday there was a full committee meeting to decide what to do at the highest level. There are further meetings this week and I will keep you informed. We will not be presented at this week’s CCS for obvious reasons,” the dispatch said.
Michel’s dispatch from October 1, 2009 said: “Meeting at the beginning of the week with regards to the Italian Lady's son. The gentleman I net knew about our activity and felt we were well placed. I explained that this was well known, but that we could not wait any longer.”
Further it said, “The gentleman confirmed that the son will be next Prime Minister and his power in the party is growing day by day. Hence, the Finance Minister’s extreme anxiety at the son’s phenomenal rise.”
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