Delhi court allows CBI to quiz Christian Michel

New Delhi, Sep 20 (IANS) A Delhi Court on Friday allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to question the alleged middlemen in the AgustaWestland deal, Christian Michel, in connection with the CBI case relating to the kickbacks allegedly involved.

The Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar granted two days to the agency for quizzing Michel and one more day to collect his specimen signature.

The agency had approached the court seeking permission to interrogate Michel regarding the developments post the arrest of businessman Ratul Puri in connection with the case.

Puri is accused of receiving money from both money trails in the Agusta Westland case -- from Christian Michel as well as from the firm Interstellar Tecnologies.

However, in a written reply filed in court, Michel's advocate argued that his client is a patient of dyslexia and has serious problems in understanding what he reads.

"...the accused has dyslexia which is a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words (decoding)......The accused has serious problems understanding what he read," Michel's advocate argued in a written reply.

The investigative agency had, on Tuesday filed an application in a special court here seeking permission to interrogate Michel and also sought a specimen of his signature, as well as his handwriting, for the probe. In its application, CBI told the court that Michel also needs to be confronted with some more documents.

Michel was extradited from Dubai last year and is currently lodged in Tihar Jail in connection with alleged irregularities in the chopper deal.

While the CBI is probing his alleged role in the deal as a "middleman", the Enforcement Directorate is investigating money laundering charges against him.