A British man who has been held in India for six years without trial in a high-profile corruption case must be released on bail, according to the Delhi High Court on Wednesday.
Christian James Michel, an armaments consultant, is accused of bribing Indian authorities to secure a multimillion-dollar helicopter contract for the British-Italian defense corporation AgustaWestland.
He disputed the charges.
He was extradited to India from the United Arab Emirates in 2018 and has remained in custody ever since, in what a judge called a “exceptional” case.
The AgustaWestland scandal was one of several corruption cases involving India’s former ruling Congress party, some of which were subsequently resolved.
In 2010, the Indian government inked an agreement with AgustaWestland’s parent firm to buy 12 helicopters.
The alleged irregularities came to light when India’s federal auditor reported that the government may have vastly overpaid for the $753m (£455m) deal, which was eventually scrapped in 2014.
According to court documents, Mr Michel is alleged to have received around €42m ($44.7m, £25m) for securing the contract.
His lawyer has argued that there is no evidence to connect him with the alleged offence.
India’s financial crime fighting agency and domestic crime bureau have held separate investigations into Mr Michel.
But both of those investigations have yet to be concluded and trials have yet to begin, leading to a “prolonged incarceration” of Mr Michel, the Delhi High Court noted.
The judge said his six years in pre-trial custody was also “alarmingly close” to the maximum punishment of seven years’ imprisonment for money laundering, which is one of the charges he faces.
The court decided to grant him bail in one of the cases, after the Supreme Court did the same in another case on 18 February.
This means that Mr Michel is now free to leave Delhi’s high-security Tihar jail, but he cannot leave India as his passport has been seized.
The deal for 12 three-engine AW-101 helicopters was signed in February 2010 after AgustaWestland beat off competition from US and Russian rivals.
The aircraft were intended for an elite squadron of the Indian air force which ferries around the president, the prime minister and other VIPs.
Only three helicopters were delivered to India before the deal was cancelled.
Italian investigators suspected that payments of about $67.6 million were paid to Indian authorities to secure the contract.
Giuseppe Orsi, the former CEO of AgustaWestland’s parent company, Finmeccanica, and Bruno Spagnolini, the former CEO of AgustaWestland, were prosecuted in Italy on fraud and corruption allegations.
Both were acquitted in 2018. Indian officials have stated that their acquittals will have no impact on the case in India.
India’s air force chief at the time of the contract was arrested for bribery in 2016 but later released on bail.
