The Enforcement Directorate, which has filed a second chargesheet in the case that delves deep into the role of the Agusta middlemen , also said that he was curious if some particular documents had reached the CBI. (File photo)
British national and alleged middleman Christian Michel James, wanted in India in the Rs 3,600 crore VVIP chopper deal case, was keen to get details about certain government payments made to AgustaWestland for Sea King helicopters used by the Indian Navy, says an Enforcement Directorate probe report.
The Enforcement Directorate, which has filed a second chargesheet in the case that delves deep into the role of Mr Michel, also said that he was curious if some particular documents had reached the CBI.
According to the report, Mr Michel was last dropped by his driver Narayan Bahadur on February 12, 2013 at the Indira Gandhi International airport after he which he probably never returned to India.
The chargesheet which goes into Mr Michel's numerous visits and meeting with people in Delhi when the deal for supply of 12 AgusatWestland helicopters to the Indian Air Force was being struck, also refers to an incident that took place few years back in a hotel in Italy.
The report mentioned that Mr Michel had offered about Euro 2,500 to a person Vimal Nagpal, manager of the helicopter firm's services division in India, to "offer lunch/dinner" to an Indian Navy team that was also staying in the same hotel that time.
"The Indian Navy team declined the offer for lunch/dinner by him (Nagpal) and Chris Cornish. However, we insisted and paid the dinner bill once," Mr Nagpal said in his statement to the Enforcement Directorate.
He also told Enforcement Directorate investigators that Mr Michel "wanted to know the details" of payments made by the Indian government to AgustaWestland pertaining to Sea King helicopter and status of the VVIP choppers and other issues.
"On one such occasion, Michel wanted to check with him (Nagpal) whether the documents approximately 9,500 pages were delivered to CBI or not," the chargesheet said, adding Mr Nagpal replied to him that he will check and get back.
The records also mention an instance recorded by Bahadur where he said that Sanjeev Tyagi, cousin of former IAF chief SP Tyagi, received "three friends of Michel" at a bungalow in the posh Sainik farm area here in 2008 after the middleman asked him to pick them from a luxury hotel in central Delhi.
The driver, whose statements have been extensively used to join the dots of Mr Michel's activities in India, also told Enforcement Directorate investigators that the middleman once gave him Rs 5 lakh for purchasing a house in the Kalkaji area, where he also lives now.
The house was priced at Rs 16 lakh and the remaining amount was paid by the driver from his savings, he told the agency.