U.K. seeks details of Michel case

The British middleman is prime accused in AgustaWestland chopper case

Days after turning down India’s request for Vijay Mallya’s deportation on technical grounds, the United Kingdom has raised queries on the request for extradition of the prime accused in the AgustaWestland copter case, British middleman Christian Michel.

An Interpol Red Notice seeking his arrest is already pending against him.

The Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate had in January written to U.K. authorities through the Ministry of External Affairs seeking Mr. Michel’s extradition and provisional arrest.

The U.K. has responded with queries on the status of the case against Mr. Michel. According to government sources, the response has been forwarded to the ED for clarifications.

Indian agencies do not have Mr. Michel’s Dubai address and therefore, the extradition request was sent only to the U.K., quoting his London address. The United Arab Emirates is yet to respond to the judicial requests sent by them seeking his particulars.

The middleman, who faces allegations of having routed € 30 million for paying bribes to swing the VVIP chopper deal in AgustaWestland’s favour, is said to be currently in Dubai.

The CBI had on September 24 last year got an open-ended non-bailable warrant issued against Mr. Michel. Subsequently, an Interpol Red Notice was issued against him last December.

Demands assurance

Meanwhile, in an interview to NDTV, the accused has reiterated that he is willing to be questioned by the Indian agencies if he gets an assurance that he will not be arrested.

He also confirmed that a note, taken on record by the Italy court, mentioning names of the then prominent ruling party leaders and government functionaries, was his and meant for lobbying purposes.

Over 130 extradition requests of India are currently pending with the U.K. authorities and not a single person has been extradited since the Treaty was signed between the two countries in 1993. Among the prominent are Ravi Shankaran of the Naval War Room leak case and Dawood Ibrahim’s close aide Iqbal Mirchi [who died in London in August 2013].