Chopper Scandal Case: ED states that Accused Christian Michel was never Acquitted by Italian Court

Shivani Gadhavi

Published On: February 11, 2022 at 16:51 IST

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on February 8, 2022, informed the Delhi High Court that alleged middleman and accused Christian Michel, in the case of infamous VVIP Chopper Scandal, was never acquitted by the Italian Supreme Court.

The Delhi High Court Bench of Justice Manoj Ohri was hearing the Bail Plea of the aforementioned Christian Michel who was booked by the Enforcement Directorate for money laundering pertaining to the case of VVIP Chopper Scandal.

The Enforcement Directorate was represented by the Additional Solicitor General for India, S V Raju, who submitted that the Applicant should not be given Bail as during the legal proceedings before the Italian Court, neither the ED nor the Applicant were stated as parties to the case.

The Counsel for the Applicant had submitted in 2018, the Italian Supreme Court had cleared him of all charged related to money laundering. The Additional Solicitor General in this regard, responded that the Order of the Italian Supreme Cpurt is not maintainable due to the fact that both the ED and the Applicant were not a party to the case that was proceeded before the Italian Court.

The Enforcement Directorate also submitted that under Article 17 of the Extradition Treaty, it is clearly stated that, “The person to be extradited shall not be tried or punished in the requesting except for the offence for which his extradition is sought or for offences connected therewith, or offences committed after his extradition.”

The Additional Solicitor General in this regard stated that as money laundering is one of the Offences which is connected with the offence for which the Applicant was extradited from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Applicant should also try for money laundering and hence, his Bail Plea should be rejected.

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