VVIP chopper scam middleman Christian Michel has made startling revelation which may indicate why the Congress party and pro-Congress activists were so much against former CBI special director Rakesh Asthana. In the CBI vs CBI battle between Asthana and former CBI director Alok Verma, Congress party and activists had openly taken the side of Verma. Rakesh Asthana was described as PM Modi’s blue-eyed boy, while lawyer Prashant Bhushan had filed multiple petitions against the appointment of Asthana as CBI special director, all of which were rejected by the Supreme Court.
Rakesh Asthana was leading the CBI efforts in getting several fugitives extradited to India, including Vijay Mallya and Christian Michel. In December last year, Michel was extradited to India by UAE, while extradition of Mallya from UK is in final phases while both the courts and UK government has given go-ahead for the same.
During his hearing in the Patiala House Court, Michel was complaining that he has been kept with other criminals like murderers, and said that he had done a white colour crime so he should be kept separately. He told the court that what is happening to him matches what was warned by CBI officials earlier. Michel said that Rakesh Asthana had met him Dubai sometime back had threatened that his life would be made hell inside jail if he does not cooperate with CBI in the investigations. He said that now exactly the same is happening as his next-door inmate in Tihar Jail is dreaded gangster Chotta Rajan. He also alleged that the prison also had 16-17 Kashmiri separatist leaders. But the jail authorities denied that and said that Michel and separatists were in different blocks in the jail.
Michel has already made very significant disclosers about the AgustaWestland scam during his interrogation. He has names certain “Mrs Gandhi”, “Italian lady’s son R who might become PM” as the persons involved in the bribery case. It is alleged that bribes were paid to senior leaders of the Congress party and senior officials of the IAF to win the bid for supplying helicopters meant for VVIP transport, where Christian Michel acted as a middleman. His revelations during the probe case fall of several big names in the country. It can be noted that Michel has been represented by a lawyer who was a Congress leader, although he was expelled from the party after a massive public outrage.
Christian Michel’s comments about the Rakesh Asthana shows that when the former CBI special director was diligently working for getting the VVIP chopper scam solved, certain people in India, including the Congress party, were trying their best to remove him from the post.
During the extradition hearing in UK court, fugitive Businessman Vijay Mallya also had complained about Rakesh Asthana handling his case. Mallya’s lawyers had cited cases filed by activists against Asthana in India as proof that the officer was corrupt, which was rejected by the UK court.
