An Indian court has ordered the liberation under bail of a British man owned for six years without trial for a high -level corruption case.
Christian James Michel, arms consultant, is accused of having united Indian officials to win a several million dollars helicopter contract for the British defense company Agustawestland. He denies the accusation.
It was extradited to India United Arab Emirates in 2018 and has been in detention since, in what a judge has called an “exceptional” situation.
The controversy of Agustawestland has been one of the many corruption cases linked to the former party of the power of India, some of which have finally disappeared.
In 2010, the Indian government signed an agreement with the parent company of Agustawestland to buy 12 helicopters.
The alleged irregularities were revealed when the India federal auditor said that the government may have paid too much for the agreement of $ 753 million (455 million pounds Sterling), which was finally abandoned in 2014.
According to court documents, Mr. Michel received around 42 million euros ($ 44.7 million, 25 million pounds sterling) for obtaining the contract. His lawyer argued that there is no evidence to link it to the alleged offense.
The India Financial Crime Agency and the Domestic Crime Bureau have conducted separate surveys on Mr. Michel.
But these two investigations have not yet been concluded and the trials have not yet started, leading to an “prolonged incarceration” of Mr. Michel, noted the High Court of Delhi.
The judge said his six years in police custody were also “alarming” the maximum sanction of seven years’ imprisonment for money laundering, which is one of the accusations he faces.
The court decided to give him a deposit for one of the cases, after the Supreme Court did the same for another case on February 18.
This means that Mr. Michel is now free to leave Delhi’s high security Tihar prison, but he cannot leave India because his passport has been seized.
The Agreement for 12 AW-101 helicopters with three AW-101 engines was signed in February 2010 after Agustawestland has competed in the American and Russian rivals.
The plane was intended for an elite squadron of the Indian Air Force which closed around the president, the Prime Minister and other VIPs.
Only three of the helicopters were delivered to India before the agreement was re -staged.
Italian prosecutors suspected that the bribes worth almost $ 67.6 million had been paid to Indian officials to obtain the contract.
Giuseppe Orsi, the former leader of the parent company of Agustawestland called at the time Finmeccanica, and Bruno Spagnolini, the former chief of Agustawestland, were tried in Italy for fraud and corruption.
The two were acquitted in 2018. Indian officials said their acquittals would have no impact on the case in India.
The head of the Air Force of India at the time of the agreement was arrested for corruption in 2016, then released on bail.
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