A Delhi court on Wednesday sought an explanation from Tihar Jail authorities on why Christian Michel James, an alleged middleman in the Agustawestland case, was kept with a "desperate accused" inside the prison.
James, on March 7, offered to "finish his sentence" and leave India instead of walking out on bail owing to "security risks".
Special judge Sanjeev Aggarwal sought a status report from the jail authorities on the issue by April 29.
"Superintendent jail is directed to appear in person to explain how such a desperate accused person (Shahnawaz) was kept together with Christian Michel James," the judge said.
Shanawaz has 41 complaints against him for his conduct in jail, the court added.
A detailed report was also called after James on April 3 alleged he was being "poisoned" in jail.
The court passed the direction after taking note of the report filed by the authorities following its order on the allegation of poisoning.
The court directed the jail superintendent to provide a table fan to James, noting it was not allowed by the authorities despite its order.
"Court had already allowed this. He's still an undertrial (prisoner). Superintendent must provide this fan. He's from abroad. It's 42 degrees in Delhi," the court said.
James, a British national, was extradited on December 4, 2018 from Dubai, where he spent four months in custody.
Probe agencies had reported irregularities in the purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters from Italian manufacturing company AgustaWestland.
Following the reprieve in the CBI and ED cases against him, the special court imposed the necessary bail conditions for releasing him on bail.
While the Delhi High Court on March 4 granted him bail in the ED case and directed for saddling James with the necessary bail riders, the Supreme Court on February 18 granted the relief in the CBI case subject to the trial court's conditions.
The bail conditions included James marking his attendance physically before the investigating officers once every 15 days, providing his cellphone number, email and residential address to the probe agencies aside from not leaving the country without the court's permission and not tampering with the evidence or attempting to influence the witnesses.
The court directed him to furnish a personal bond and surety of Rs 10 lakh in both cases and surrender his passport.
James is among the three alleged middlemen being probed in the case and the other two are Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa.
The CBI, in its chargesheet, claimed an estimated loss of 398.21 million euros (about Rs 2,666 crore) to the exchequer due to the deal that was signed on February 8, 2010, for the supply of VVIP choppers worth 556.262 million euros.
The ED chargesheet filed against James in June 2016 alleged he received 30 million euros (about Rs 225 crore) from AgustaWestland.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
