AgustaWestland Deal

The Supreme Court on Thursday said it would hear on February 7 the bail pleas of Christian Michel James, an alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland chopper scam in which the CBI and the ED have lodged two separate cases. The matter came up for hearing before a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala, which said the pleas would be heard next Tuesday. The Rs 3,600-crore alleged scam relates to the purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters from AgustaWestland. In May last year, the apex court had sought the responses of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the bail pleas of James. During an earlier hearing, the counsel for the accused had said the case was covered under section 436A of the CrPC (maximum period for which an under trial prisoner can be detained) and James had served 50 per cent of the sentence for the offence allegedly committed by him. The accused was extradited from Dubai in December 2018 a

The Rouse Avenue court in Delhi had on Monday reserved its order in the matter after special public prosecutor DP Singh, representing CBI, wrapped up his submission in the matter

Michel, extradited from Dubai, was arrested by ED on December 22 last year

A division bench of Justice A.K. Goel and Justice U.U. Lalit dismissed the plea filed by the NGO Swaraj Abhiyan, saying it doesn't find any merit in it