How did Christian Michel influence the then NSA in VVIP helicopter deal?

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) may find that getting British citizen Christian Michel James extradited from Dubai has been a far simpler exercise than getting him convicted for paying bribes to politicians, bureaucrats and Indian Air Force officials in the VVIP helicopter deal.

A report in the Hindustan Times has confirmed what has been suspected since long, that UAE acceded to the demand for extradition of Michel as a return favour. India had intercepted a yacht in international waters and took princess Latifa, the 33-year-old daughter of the ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of UAE Mohammed Rashid al-Makhtoum, into custody and returned her to UAE.

“The request to intercept the yacht came directly from the Dubai royal family and India decided to accede to it keeping in mind its own strategic interests, said a second Indian government official familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified,” reads the report in the Hindustan Times.

A Press Release issued by the CBI mentioned that the operation was conducted “under the guidance of the National Security Advisor Ajit Kumar Doval”.

Michel’s Dubai based lawyer, reported the media in UAE, opposed the extradition on the ground that his client was being framed because of political considerations. The lawyer, Bin Suwaidan, told the court, “ After the deal, several political developments took place in India … my client’s name was falsely and unfoundedly brought up in this case to coerce him to testify against former politicians as part of political rivalry in India…”

“The motives behind associating my client to this case are obviously political. The Italian judicial authorities had acquitted the company of any of the Indian accusations and subsequently Michel was cleared as well in 2014. Moreover, the extradition request rotates around an incident that happened in 2009 and should be dismissed due to time lapse,” Bin Suwaidan concluded.

Even CBI’s unusual press release states that Michel and the middlemen had negotiated with the Italian company a fee which was to be 7% of the contracted value of the order to cover expenses, for managing the media and for influencing decision makers.

The CBI press release, ironically, accuses Michel of influencing the decision to reduce the ‘service ceiling’ (the height that the helicopter could attain) from 6000 metres to 4,500 meters. But the change was made in 2003, when NDA Government was in power and was made at the behest of the then NSA Brajesh Mishra, suggest records in the public domain.