EXCLUSIVE: Never met Sonia Gandhi, can't say there were no kickbacks, says Christian Michel
In an exclusive interview with India Today TV which tracked him down in Dubai, the middleman, who has an Interpol Red Corner Notice against him, said the only person related to Agusta that he has ever met is former IAF chief Colonel SP Tyagi.
In a sensational disclosure, AgustaWestland middleman Christian Michel today denied meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or former Defence Minister AK Antony during the ten years of the UPA government. | Michel's top 10 disclosures
"No, never," the man behind the AgustaWestland scam said when asked if he ever met the top Congress leaders while the Italian company was lobbying to sell its choppers to the Indian Air Force (IAF). The government has named Sonia and other top Congress leaders in the scam, leading to a massive standoff with the main opposition party in and outside Parliament.
EXCLUSIVE: Full text of AgustaWestland middleman Christian Michel's interview to India Today
In an exclusive interview with India Today TV which tracked him down in Dubai, the middleman, who has an Interpol Red Corner Notice against him, said the only person related to Agusta that he has ever met is former IAF chief Colonel SP Tyagi . "I probably met him at Delhi's Gymkhana Club at a social event," he said. | The men and women named in AgustaWestland scam: A primer
"The Congress never interfered in the Agusta deal. I avoid meeting leaders, my expertise is implementation," he said, adding that the Narendra Modi government has also not interfered in the Rs 3700 crore VVIP chopper deal.
The VVIP choppers deal probe has shed light on the involvement of three alleged middlemen - Carlo Gerosa, Guido Haschke and Michel - in swinging the deal in favour of UK-based AgustaWestland, a subsidiary of Italian firm Finmeccanica.
Investigating agencies are probing their role in the specific context of alleged payment of bribes and extension of favours by the company to clinch the multi-million dollar deal. On January 1, 2014, India scrapped the contract with the company over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of paying kickbacks of Rs 423 crore by it for securing the deal. From India Today Magazine: Will the BJP's strategy to pin the blame for the AgustaWestland scam on Sonia Gandhi work?
The CBI, which is investigating the Agusta scam, on Tuesday questioned RK Nanda, an alleged associate of Michel, to know the outward flow of purported foreign remittances worth Rs 6.5 crore received by his firm from Michel.
Apart from Michel, the central agency has also registered a case against Tyagi along with 13 others, including his cousins, CEO of Aeromatrix Infosolutions Pvt Limited Praveen Bakshi, Managing Director of IDS Infotech Pratap Aggarwal and European middlemen Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa.
The allegation against Tyagi is that he reduced the flying ceiling of the helicopter from 6,000 metres to 4,500 metres (15,000ft), which put AgustaWestland helicopters in the race for the deal without which its choppers were not even qualified for submission of bids.
Tyagi has denied the allegations against him and said the change of specifications, which brought AgustaWestland into contention, was a collective decision in which senior officers of the Indian Air Force, Special Protection Group and other departments were involved.
- I have never met Sonia Gandhi
- I have never ever met Manmohan Singh or AK Antony.
- Congress never interefered in the Agusta deal.
- Modi government has also not interfered in the deal.
- Avoid meeting leaders, my expertise is implementation.
- I probably met ex-Air chief SP Tyagi in Gymkhana club. Met Tyagi and others and I wasn't keen on them.
- Spent 6.25 million to cover everything.
- Was keeping an eye on media to submit reports. Doing anything illegal or illicit out of question. Deal wasn't the way media portrayed it.
- I can't say there were no kickbacks.
- I wasn't involved in height and weight specifications. Only know what happened after 2007 after I got involved.
- Agusta chairman was my very good friend. Haschke, Gerosa's meeting suspicious.
- Haschke also admitted that money was given.
- I was very suspicious of them and was critical of engineering software.
- Deal should have been direct with India and that's what I always said.
- Was introduced to Julie Tyagi as a powerful industrialist. Julie is a very nice man. He didn't promise me of any deal. I was very nervous of them.