Chirstian Michel, the alleged middleman in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland helicopter deal, yesterday said he has never met Congress President Sonia Gandhi or the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to push for the purchase of VVIP choppers
New Delhi: Chirstian Michel, the alleged middleman in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland helicopter deal, yesterday said he has never met Congress President Sonia Gandhi or the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to push for the purchase of VVIP choppers.
Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh during a protest against Modi government
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“No, never,” was the prompt reply of Michel when he was asked whether he had ever met Gandhi, Singh or the then Defence Minister AK Antony for pushing the deal. “I have never met any of these,” he said in an interview to a news channel in Abu Dhabi.
Michel sought to clear his name from the kickbacks scam claiming that he had “once” shaken hands with the then IAF Chief S P Tyagi in Delhi, “I probably met him (S P Tyagi) in Gymkhana club and I think I shook his hand there. But because of his association with [Guido] Haschke I really avoided him,” he said.
Naval chief dodges questions on probe
Admiral RK Dhowan on Wednesday dodged questions related to the AgustaWestland scam, saying all aspects and the government was looking into decisions related to the probe. “Whatever is happening, as you know, the government of India is probing... Whatever decision that needs to be taken will be taken by the government of India,” Dhowan said.