AgustaWestland case accused Michael says ‘FAM’ is for family and ‘AP’ for Ahmed Patel: report
05 Apr 2019
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Christian Michael, the alleged middleman arrested in the in the Rs3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam, is reported to have admitted that “FAM” and “AP” mentioned in the diary of another arrested accused, Sushen Mohan Gupta, stood for “family” and “Ahmed Patel,” respectively.
The British-born arms agent, however, is yet to open up on another term `RG’ mentioned in Gupta’s dairy.
Ahmed Patel is a senior Congress leader and close aide of former party president Sonia Gandhi.
It is popularly believed that `RG’ bay either be Rajeev Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi and it is all about the Gandhi family and their cohorts.
While filing a supplementary charge sheet in the case, the Enforcement Directorate told the court of Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar that they were trying to identify one "RG" whose name finds multiple mentions in Gupta’s diary.
ED's special public prosecutors DP Singh and NK Matta told the court that entries of more than Rs50 crore have been made in the name of ‘RG’ in Gupta's diary, according to a Times Now report.
Gupta, on the other hand, is trying to mislead investigators, claiming that ‘RG’ stands for one ‘Rajat Gupta’.
"More than Rs50 crore shown to have been received from 'RG' between 2004 to 2016, whereas the 'RG' identified by Gupta, i.e. Rajat Gupta, had admitted to have cash transactions wish Sushen from 2007 onwards and the same are being quantified," the agency told the court.
Rajat Gupta, on his part, has denied any connection to the transactions that were made in the name of ‘RG’. He said he is not the person referred to as ‘RG’ in the diaries.
During interrogation, Sushen Mohan Gupta has also revealed the name of Ratul Puri, nephew of Madhya Pradesh CM and Gandhi family loyalist Kamal Nath, according to the Times Now report.
The development came as the ED informed the court today that it has managed to trace the trail of kickbacks to the tune of 70 million euros in the VVIP chopper deal. The agency said in the 3000-page supplementary charge sheet that Michel and other accused in the case received kickbacks to the tune of 42 million euros.
According to the ED, the remaining 28 million euros were routed by co-accused lawyer Gautam Khaitan, Rajeev Saxena and his wife Shivani, and their firms.
Filing the supplementary charge sheet, the ED said it has yet to find out who all got the kickbacks in the deal.
"We have traced the routing of 70 million euros that had come from AgustaWestland in the form of kickbacks," ED's counsel and Special Public Prosecutor DP Singh told the court.
The agency today named two firms -- Global Services FZE and Global Trade and Commerce Limited, besides David Syms, alleged partner and director of Michel's firms, as accused in the case. The special CBI court will now consider the charge sheet on April 6.
The United Arab Emirates government had extradited Michel to India in December last year. He is currently lodged at the Tihar Jail in Delhi and is facing CBI and ED cases related to the AgustaWestland chopper deal.
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