SC questions how long the Agusta accused can be detained with 250 witnesses still present.

  • Dec. 7, 2022, 11:53 a.m.

Noting that as many as 250 witnesses still remain to be examined in the Agusta Westland VVIP chopper scam case, the Supreme Court on Tuesday wondered how long accused middleman Christian James Michel, who was arrested and extradited from Dubai on December 4, 2018, can be deprived of his personal liberty.

"He has already been put in jail for four and a-half years. Ordinarily, if he were an Indian national, the court would be willing to grant bail. Yes, he is a foreign national, and we brought him through extradition. But only because he is a foreign national, does that warrant a complete deprivation of his liberty?" Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, presiding over a two-judge bench, asked.

He asked whether it would suffice if the court imposed some conditions to ensure his appearance. Michel’s counsel told the bench, also comprising Justice P S Narasimha, that he had already spent almost the maximum sentence of five years for the offences he had been charged with, and thus it falls under Section 436 of the CrPC.

Section 436 of the Criminal Procedure Code says that where an undertrial has been in prison for up to one-half of the maximum period of imprisonment specified for the offence he is charged with, he or she shall be released by the court.

"The FIR was registered in February 2013. The incidents are from 2004 and 2008. I was arrested and brought to India on December 4, 2018. "Chargesheets have been filed, but more than 1,280 documents need to be examined," the counsel said. "It’s unlikely that the trial will proceed in the next few years." "The investigation has been going on for more than nine years."

Appearing for prosecuting agencies CBI and ED, Additional Solicitor General S V Raju said although Section 21 of Extradition Act, 1962, states that any person who surrendered or returned by a foreign State shall not be tried in India for an offence other than for which he was extradited, it has to be read with the India-UAE extradition treaty, which provided that such a person could also be tried for a "connected offence".

The bench said the statute says he can be tried only for offences for which he surrendered or was extradited, and the limitation imposed by statute cannot be removed by a treaty.

The CJI remarked that what is worrying the court is the "complexity of the trial... as many as 250 witnesses are to be examined."

The bench asked the two sides to submit a note on their contentions. The court will hear it next in January 2023.

Author : Rajdhani Delhi Representative

Rajdhani delhi representative

Related News