AgustaWestland: Christian Michel’s CBI custody further extended by five days

A Special CBI Court today extended the agency’s custody over British businessman Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland scam, by five more days..Special Prosecutor DP Singh sought further extension of custody by nine days, claiming that Michel needed to be confronted with documents which run into thousands of pages for an “elaborate investigation”..He further claimed that Michel was uncooperative and evasive..Singh also asserted that Michel did not co-operate with the Italian investigation in the case. The claim was however strongly objected to by advocates appearing for Michel, Aljo K Joseph, Sriram Parakkat and MS Vishnu Shankar.Joseph argued that Michel’s CBI custody was not required anymore and that there was no incriminating evidence against him in the AgustaWestland case..He further informed the Court that he has sent an email to British High Commission with respect to how Michel was being treated by the CBI..The CBI, however, rebutted the claim saying that it was taking care of all human rights aspects..Meanwhile, the agency informed the court that it had moved an application to take a handwriting specimen of Michel for the purpose of the investigation. The said application will be heard by the court on December 11..The CBI also submitted that the British High Commission had approached it for obtaining consular access to Michel, and that the same has been allowed..Joseph submitted that a “detailed” bail application has been moved for Michel, and that the earlier one has been withdrawn. The application argues that Michel has been completely cooperating with the CBI and other investigating agencies and is willing to do so in future as well, under any bail conditions..Relying on Articles 26, 27,263, 274 and 315 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties read with Article 51(c) of the Constitution of India, the Applicant claims that the present proceedings are in violation of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Commercial Transactions..The two Conventions deal with dual criminality and international cooperation in cases of criminal trial..The Application claims that all the facts in the matter were already subject to a trial in Italy, which had acquitted Michel. At the above proceedings, the Applicant states that the Indian Authorities had accepted the Italian jurisdiction with respect to the alleged crimes and had renounced its own jurisdiction when it submitted a written note requesting to the Italian Court to convict the defendants and asked them to pay damages for an amount of € 8,350,000..However, despite being a party to the Italian proceedings, the Indian Government initiated a proceeding for the same facts and against the same defendants in India..It is further claimed that the entire charge sheet in the AugustaWestland case does not disclose any commission of offence whatsoever by Michel, and that he has been falsely implicated as an accused..The Application lastly submits that Michel is “ready and willing to cooperate” with the investigation and would abide by any condition that may be imposed at the time of granting bail..Michel will be produced before the CBI court on December 15..Last week, Special CBI judge Arvind Kumar had sent Michel to CBI custody for five days, following his extradition to India..Read the order below:.Read the bail application below.