A Special CBI Court in New Delhi today directed to shift Chirstian Michel, the alleged middleman in AgustaWestland case, to the cell meant for undertrails from the present high security cell which is meant for convicts. The Court passed the order while considering an application by Michel to shift him from high security solitary cell to a normal cell. The CBI said that he was kept in Jail No.2 for security reasons. It further submitted that Jail Nos.1, 3 and 4 are also high security cells where undertrials are kept.
Michel's counsel alleged that CBI had asked him in Dubai to implicate certain persons in the case, failing which he would face problems in jail. During the hearing, Michel's lawyer Aljo K Joseph said, "CBI officials met him in Dubai and he was told that if he does not name certain persons in the case and give desired confessions, he will face problem in the jail. That's what going on. In the name of security, he is being isolated and his freedom is further going to be curtailed."
The CBI, however, denied the allegation. "These allegations are farther from the truth. Everyday they are making new allegations. They only want to scandalised the things. They have also made false and frivolous allegations like he had to go for open defecation which are false and giving bad name to the country. They have made a joke of this court. The foreigners who are to come from outside the country, are taking these grounds that facilities in Indian jails are not good enough. Trying to scandalised the court by allegations of open defecation etc.," the CBI counsel told the court. The Special Judge Arvind Kumar took note of Rule 53 of the Delhi Prisons (Admission, Classification, Separation of Prisoners) Rules 1988 which mandated separation of undertrials from convicts. Based on this rule, the shifting of Michel to Jail Nos.1, 3 or 4 was ordered.
Courtesy/By: Sakshi Shukla
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07 Mar 2019
