Jaiveer Shergil on Agusta case: BJP linking Congress with Michel is like pot calling kettle black

Congress Spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill on Thursday, December 6, said the BJP linking, Congress with Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland chopper deal, on the basis of an "expelled lawyer" is a case of the "pot calling the kettle black".

Many top leaders of the ruling party have represented "fraudsters" in the past, Congress spokesperson Shergill said at a press conference.

“The baggage of corruption, unemployment, farmer anger is going to completely sink the BJP on December 11 and that is why now they are doing meaningless Press Conferences and clutching to the straws,” alleged the Congress leader.

On Wednesday, December 5, the Congress expelled Youth Congress leader and lawyer Aljo K Joseph from the party after he appeared in a court here for Michel, who was extradited from Dubai on Tuesday for allegedly being the middleman in the UPA era ₹ 3,600 crore VVIP helicopter deal.

Shergill alleged that the BJP is a "one stop shop which provides full service to fraudsters and scamsters by acting as their advisors, lawyers, boarding pass agents, ticket agents, establishing in London agents and police protection agents".

"The BJP linking the Congress party with AgustaWestland on the basis of an expelled Congress lawyer is a classic case of pot calling the kettle black," he said

According to Shergill, if the BJP was linking the Congress with Michel on the basis of a lawyer, they should answer on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's family members taking fees from fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad representing Subrata Roy and Vasundhara Raje giving an affidavit in favour of Lalit Modi in London.

He also said the BJP must give an answer on Jaitley representing stock broker Ketan Parekh.

“Will the CBI investigate the BJP Agusta nexus of quid-pro-quo of accommodating, welcoming Agusta into India by including them into the Make-in-India programme? By welcoming them to bid for the Navy Helicopter? By overruling the earlier Government judgment to adjust them? Will the CBI investigate – No, they will not investigate because CBI is behaving like a remote-controlled hawk of the Narendra Modi Government, because CBI had become the Comfort Bureau of Investigation of BJP. Why for the past 4-1/2 years, CBI has not investigated the angle of BJP aggressively promoting Agusta and Finmeccanica despite their being into the radar of suspicion? But, no answer, because in BJP, they only know how to put meaningless allegations but they do not have the courage to face the questions of the Press on Agusta”, Jaiveer Shergill pointed out.

British businessman Michel was sent to CBI custody for five days by a Delhi court on Wednesday, a day after he was extradited to India from the UAE.

The CBI's plea for custody was opposed by Michel's counsel — Joseph and Vishnu Shankaran — who said they have not yet received any documents from the agency and the accused may be remanded to judicial custody.

With inputs from PTI