The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will soon approach the Ministry of External Affairs to initiate extradition proceedings with the United Arab Emirates against Christian Michel, British middleman and prime accused in the AgustaWestland deal case.
Processs begins
Acting on media reports that Mr. Michel is in Dubai, the ED has initiated the process of sending a request to the UAE for extradition.
It had earlier sought his extradition from the United Kingdom, which wanted certain clarifications on the status of the case against him.
The Central Bureau of Investigation and the ED earlier had only the London address of the middleman. The UAE is yet to respond to their judicial requests for information on him.
Cheating case
According to sources in the government, the Dubai agencies are also probing Mr. Michel’s role in a case of alleged cheating reported about a month ago.
The officials suspect that this might create hurdles to early extradition of the accused, who in media interviews has agreed to cooperate in the VVIP helicopter deal investigation if only he is not arrested.
The investigating agencies have already got Interpol to issue Red Notice against Mr. Michel, who has been accused of routing 30 million euros to bribe Indian officials for swinging the deal in AgustaWestland’s favour.
