The AgustaWestland chopper scam’s story has been unfolding at a fast pace. Michel had made some startling revelations about one ‘Mrs Gandhi’, ‘Italian Lady’s son, R’ and the inside information he could gather from sources like the PMO and the investigative agencies. Now it appears that there is a new entrant in the AgustaWestland scam. Reportedly, ED tracked down the money trail of kickbacks received by Christian Michel and it has led them to Moser Baer which is owned by Deepak Puri, who is close to senior Congress leader Kamal Nath.
#NewsAlert – ED cracks down on Michel money trail. ED finds alleged kickback to a company named Moser Baer which is owned by Deepak Puri who is linked to top netas. | Details by @Ashish_Mehrishi
Watch #SettingTheAgenda with @shreyadhoundial. pic.twitter.com/YEyes00ijk
— News18 (@CNNnews18) March 5, 2019
According to CNN News 18, a part of the kickbacks was routed through Moser Baer which is owned by Deepak Puri. Deepak Puri is the brother-in-law of senior Congress leader Kamal Nath. Puri is married to Nita Puri , sister of Senior Congress Leader and Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Mr Kamal Nath and have one son Ratul Puri. Both Nita and Ratul are part of Moser Baer.
The Directors of Moser Baer are both Nita Puri and Deepak Puri, the sister and brother-in-law of Kamal Nath.
In his 2014 election affidavit, Kamal Nath had declared that he held 6450 shares in Moser Baer of Rs 10 market value each.
In fact, in 2017, Moser Baer had shut its plan and laid off over 2000 employees, allegedly, without clearing their dues. A portal called ‘Ten News’ had spoken to the staff of the plan who had directly named Puri and Kamal Nath. One had alleged that Kamal Nath, during UPA 1 had favoured Deepak Puri and the company now going under is the result of that.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKkzUzMeo0M]
In fact, Moser Baer Solar Limited had incurred a huge debt most of it while Kamal Nath was the commerce minister. Among the creditors are Punjab National Bank (Rs 401.65 crore), State Bank of India (Rs 276.87 crore), Central Bank of India (Rs 117.08 crore), Union Bank of India (Rs 77.69 crore), Indian Overseas Bank (Rs 223.02 crore), Exim Bank (Rs 228.20 crore), Bank of Baroda (Rs 69.24 crore) and Oriental Bank of Commerce (Rs 849.94 crore).
In the financial year 2013, Moser Baer Solar had sought restructuring of Rs 956 crore of debt but the recast failed.
The Directors of Moser Baer Solar also included Deepak Puri, Kamal Nath’s brother in law and Nita Puri, Kamal Nath’s sister.
Michel was extradited to India on 4 December from United Arab Emirates (UAE). Recently it was also unearthed that, Christian Michel’s involvement was not only restricted to AgustaWestland scam. He had also lobbied against France-based Rafale in order to enable Eurofighter, its rival, to grab the MMRCA deal. On 5th January, the Patiala House Court had extended Michel’s judicial custody till February 26.
Christian Michel, the middleman in the AgustaWestland VVIP Chopper scam, who was extradited from Dubai, has been spilling the beans and his correspondence from the time when this deal was in consideration has made some stunning revelations. Earlier, it was reported how Michel had access to Cabinet Meetings, Cabinet Committee on Security meetings and the then PMO under Manmohan Singh. It has now emerged that he also had access to investigative agencies, reported Economic Times.
