India’s Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to British citizen Christian James Michel, who is accused of paying bribes to Indian officials to win a helicopter deal for Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland.
Mr Michel had been incarcerated for over six years in India following his extradition from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in December 2018.
The court’s decision comes amid ongoing investigations by federal probe agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and anti-money laundering agency, the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Mr Michel has applied for bail more than a dozen times. The Supreme Court finally granted it after he challenged a Delhi High Court order last September that refused it.
The Supreme Court cited delays in the trial as a key reason for granting 64-year-old Michel’s latest request, with Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta expressing concern over its slow progress. Justice Mehta questioned the delay in the trial and said on Tuesday: “[The way you are going on right now], you will not be able to conclude trial in 25 years.”
AgustaWestland deal and corruption allegations
The case revolves around a contract signed in 2010 between the Indian government and AgustaWestland, the British subsidiary of the Italian aerospace and defence firm Finmeccanica, for the procurement of 12 VVIP helicopters. The deal, valued at over Rs36bn, was meant to provide high-end helicopters for top Indian government officials.
However, suspicions soon emerged that the contract had been manipulated to favour AgustaWestland through bribery and illicit lobbying.
According to investigators, certain technical specifications in the original tender were altered to ensure AgustaWestland’s qualification. The most notable change was the reduction of the helicopters’ service ceiling from 6,000m to 4,500m, a move that allegedly excluded competing manufacturers while benefiting AgustaWestland.
Role of Christian Michel
Mr Michel, a UK-based consultant, is accused of being one of the key middlemen in the scandal. While he has maintained innocence, investigators claim that he facilitated bribes to Indian defence officials and politicians to influence the contract’s awarding in favour of AgustaWestland. Alongside Mr Michel, Italian nationals Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke were also implicated as intermediaries in the case.
According to charges filed by the CBI and the ED, AgustaWestland allocated €70m under the deal’s “offset” obligations, which was allegedly channelled through shell companies run by these middlemen.
Mr Michel is said to have controlled Global Services FZE in Dubai, while Mr Haschke established entities such as IDS Tunisia, IDS Mauritius, and Aeromatrix. Investigators allege that Mr Michel’s share of the illicit funds amounted to €42m, of which at least €24m was paid before the contract’s cancellation in 2014.
Investigators have also claimed that Mr Michel had direct access to influential figures in India’s Ministry of Defence and political circles, while his counterparts Gerosa and Haschke reportedly engaged with members of the Tyagi family, including former Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi. “I am innocent," Mr Tyagi had said in 2013.
Extradition and prolonged detention
Mr Michel’s extradition from Dubai in 2018 marked a significant moment in India’s efforts to bring those accused in the case to justice. However, despite his transfer to India, the trial has made little progress, and Mr Michel remained in judicial custody for over six years without formal conviction.
His repeated bail pleas were denied by lower courts, with Indian authorities arguing that his release could hinder investigations. The Supreme Court’s recent decision to grant him bail acknowledges the prolonged nature of his detention and the lack of significant progress in the trial, say his lawyers Aljo K Joseph and Sriram Parakkat.
In a statement to The Independent, Advocate Parakkat said: “He’s in AIIMS hospital for a minor surgery which went well and he’s not given any official statement.
“Of course he’s relieved and happy with the order. He’s waiting for the rest of the procedures to be over to be finally put (behind him).”
Political dimension
The AgustaWestland case has also carried political overtones, in India’s domestic landscape as well as in UAE. Mr Michel has previously alleged that Indian authorities pressured him to implicate senior members of the Congress party, including former party chief Sonia Gandhi – a key opposition figure against prime minister Narendra Modi.
His arrest, which came months before the general election in 2019, was seen as a way for Mr Modi to secure political mileage against the opposition. Mr Michel claimed the CBI sought a confession from him in Dubai linking Ms Gandhi to the deal. However, the CBI has strongly denied such allegations.
The controversy resurfaced in 2018 when Mr Michel’s lawyer and sister publicly stated that he had been questioned in Dubai under duress. The CBI, however, refuted these claims, maintaining that his extradition and subsequent detention followed due legal process.
Mr Michel extradition from UAE was also an alleged quid pro quo with the Indian government helping Dubai’s ruler Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum securing the return of his daughter, princess Sheikha Latifa. She was arrested some 50km off the coast of Indian state of Goa and handed back to the UAE authorities.
Latifa had escaped in February 2018, after months of meticulous planning, taking an inflatable boat and jet ski to travel into international waters off the Omani coast where former French intelligence officer was waiting on a yacht. She was reportedly attempting to flee the UAE, and reach the US via India to claim asylum.
For years, the princess and her sister were allegedly detained, threatened, tortured and drugged to deter them from seeking personal freedom, she said in a pre-recorded video released by British human rights lawyers David Haigh.
After locating the yacht, “Sheikh Mohammed spoke with the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and agreed to extradite a Dubai-based arms dealer in exchange for his daughter’s capture. The Indian government deployed boats, helicopters, and a team of armed commandos to storm Nostromo and carry Latifa away,” according to an article in The New Yorker.
While Sheikh Mohammed has denied allegations of Latifa being forcibly captured and detained, New Delhi faced backlash from international human rights agencies, including the UN human rights commissioner’s office, on the charge of complicity. The Indian government has never commented on its role.
“Basically, Michel was sold by the people in power for political mileage and personal gains,” said his lawyer, Advocate Aljo K Joseph.
Legal and diplomatic implications
The AgustaWestland case has also drawn attention from international legal bodies. In 2021, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared Mr Michel’s continued incarceration as arbitrary and in violation of international human rights laws. The Indian government dismissed the UN panel’s observations as biased and lacking a comprehensive understanding of the case.
Mr Michel has consistently maintained his innocence, stating that he was never directly involved in the deal’s financial transactions. His legal representatives have also invoked India’s Extradition Act, which, under the “doctrine of specialty”, restricts a suspect’s trial to only those charges for which extradition was granted.
Despite diplomatic interventions by the UK government, including representations made by Foreign Office Minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during talks with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, Mr Michel’s legal battles have continued in Indian courts.
What happens now?
The Supreme Court’s decision to grant Mr Michel bail marks a turning point in the case, though it does not equate to an acquittal.
The CBI and ED investigations remain open, and authorities have indicated that they are probing additional financial irregularities linked to the helicopter deal.
