: A special court here on Saturday issued fresh summons against three accused in the money laundering case connected with the ₹3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter deal.
There is already an open-ended non-bailable arrest warrant (NBW) against British national Christian Michel James, the alleged middleman in the deal.
The warrant issued on November 30 last year has not been executed yet.
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The court had issued the NBW against James when the Enforcement Directorate submitted that the alleged middleman was out of the country. So, it was necessary to bring him here to face prosecution .
Company in the dock
Special Judge Arvind Kumar issued the fresh summons against Indian company Messrs Media Exim Private Limited and its directors R. K. Nanda and J. B. Subramaniyam, asking them to be present before the court on February 22, the next date of hearing.
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According to the Special Public Prosecutor in the case, N.K. Matta, Nanda and Subramaniyam have told in their statements that they had set up the company at the behest of James.
The court issued the fresh summons against the three accused when Mr. Matta informed it that the summons issued on November 30 against them after taking cognisance of a complaint filed by the Directorate last year were not served as they were not found at the addresses given by them, while nobody was ready to take summons for the company at its given address.
The Directorate also submitted their new addresses on which the fresh summons were issued.
The Directorate had filed the complaint in June last year.
The complaint said James had received €30 million from AgustaWestland as kickbacks to execute the deal for sale of 12 helicopters to India in its favour in the guise of genuine transactions for performing multiple work contracts in the country.
Bribery charges
Another case related to the alleged payment of bribery in the deal is being probed by the CBI.
The latter had recently arrested former Air Chief S.P. Tyagi, his cousin Sanjeev Tyagi and advocate Gautam Khiatan in connection with it. They were later granted bail.