Christian Michel accessed classified info of investigative agencies too

Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the VVIP chopper deal, claimed to have access to not only classified information of Cabinet and CSS meetings but was also privy to inside information of probe agencies, according to a correspondence that has emerged between him and another ‘middleman’ in the VVIP chopper deal. In a December 6, 2009 despatch, allegedly authored by Michel, he warns his associate Guido Ralph Haschke to distance himself from advocate Gautam Khaitan, a co-accused in the VVIP chopper deal. Reason: Michel claims that Khaitan in cahoots with a friend of his (Khaitan) in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) tried to organise a raid by ED on real estate firm Emaar MGF a month before the launch of their initial public offering (IPO). And that the MGF “family” has learnt about the people behind this move.

The reference of “the family” finds a significant mention in this despatch as Michel tells Haschke that “the family” employed by him (Haschke) has been asked to “get lost” by Emaar MGF. Michel further claims to know the line of investigation by the ED in an alleged case of financial bungling. The despatch reads, “I am deeply concerned about this developing situation with Emaar. I wanted to warn you to resign as a nonexecutive director in India two weeks ago but I have been waiting for a certain document to show you how bad the situation is. ..” Michel goes on to warn “the family behind MGF Emaar’s partner are an old, powerful and rich Delhi family. They engaged Khaitan, the lawyers who you recommended to take over AgustaWestland’s legal work. The MGF family thought Khaitan would help them launch their IPO and I know that Khaitan recommended that you become a non-executive”.

“Once Khaitan were the advisers, the Khaitan boss met with a friend of his at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to recommend that he raid Emaar a month before the IPO unless MGF pay a huge sum to avoid this,” it adds. “The MGF family have all the information they knew about Khaitan and how they have been betrayed by their lawyers. That is why they told your family to get lost.” Michel’s lawyer had flatly refused to speak about the case. When contacted, Khaitan strongly denied the allegations, calling them totally incorrect. Khaitan said while Haschkewas his client, he never met or spoke to Michel. Khaitan’s lawyer Pramod Dubey told ET that probe agencies “are confused about their investigation. They have repeatedly changed their stand(s) with the intention to deliberately delay the investigation”.