New Delhi: Christian James Michel, a British middleman wanted in India in connection with Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam, has challenged a Dubai court's decision to extradite him to India.
In a decision dated September 2, the Dubai Court of Appeals had ruled that Michel can be extradited to the authorities concerned in India.
Michel, who was out on bail, was taken into custody shortly after the ruling.
He had pleaded not guilty and refuted charges of commercial fraud, bribery and money laundering levelled against him in the extradition papers.
He is also believed to have argued before Dubai prosecutors that he was previously questioned over the same charges concerning another helicopter deal by Italian judicial authorities who acquitted him.
His lawyer has appealed to the court to reject the extradition request claiming that it was based on political motives.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), in its charge sheet filed against Michel in June 2016, had alleged that he received EUR 30 million (about Rs 225 crore) from AgustaWestland.
Michel is one of the three middlemen being probed in the case, besides Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa, by the ED and the CBI.
On January 1, 2014, India scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of paying kickbacks to the tune of Rs 423 crore by it for securing the deal.
The CBI has alleged that there was an estimated loss of Euro 398.21 million (approximately Rs 2,666 crore) to the exchequer in the deal that was signed on February 8, 2010 for the supply of VVIP choppers worth Euro 556.262 million.
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