AgustaWestland middleman Christian Michel, accused of routing bribes to Indian politicians, bureaucrats and IAF officials, did not deny kickbacks were paid but said he never met Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former PM Manmohan Singh or former defence minister A K Antony.
“No, never. I have never met any of these,” he told India Today TV from the UAE on Wednesday when asked whether he had met Congress members. He added that “Congress never interfered in the Agusta deal. I avoid meeting leaders, my expertise is implementation.”
He also blamed lawyer Gautam Khaitan for being the brain behind the kickbacks. “He is certainly the brain behind the scandal. He was responsible for moving the money. He knows everything,” Michel, who faces a red corner notice, said.
Michel also admitted to receiving payments from AgustaWestland but claimed he got involved in the contract in 2007 and didn’t have a role in height specifications. He said he spent 6.25 million euros to cover everything. “(I) was keeping an eye on the media to submit reports. Doing anything illegal or illicit is out of question. Deal wasn’t the way media portrayed it,” he said.
Michel also asserted that the NDA government did not interfere in the VVIP chopper contract. “I think Indian leaders did their job. But to say that men like (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee, Dr Manmohan Singh or A K Antony are involved is ridiculous. No one would believe that,” he said.
The UK national also said BJP MP Subramanian Swamy had not lied about the deal but it seems he was misled. “He has authenticated (documents) what was given in the CAG report. The CAG report was prepared in great hurry as the deal was always blowing away. They (CAG) are not aviation experts and they are bureaucrats asked to put together documents way beyond their expertise. So he was misled by his own documentation,” he said.
Michel tried to put the blame for kickbacks on two other European middlemen – Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa – when asked about his link with former IAF chief S P Tyagi. “I probably met him (S P Tyagi) in Gymkhana Club (in Delhi) and I think I shook his hand there. But because of his association with Haschke, I really avoided him,” he said.
Michel said he was suspicious of Haschke and Gerosa, while adding that “he was critical of engineering software”. About S P Tyagi’s cousin Sanjeev alias Julie, who is learnt to have played a key role in the contract and bribes, Michel said, “I was introduced to Julie Tyagi as a powerful industrialist. Julie is a very nice man. He didn’t promise me any deal. I was very nervous of them (Haschke and Gerosa).” He further said, “I think Tyagi was used as a tool for Haschke to get inside AgustaWestland. I don’t think he can play any major role.”
Michel asserted that the “deal should have been (done) directly with India”