Delhi Court seeks Christian Michel’s jail conduct report
The DG of Delhi Prison is supposed to file the conduct report before the next date of hearing on March 18.
A Delhi court on Wednesday directed the director general (DG) of Delhi Prisons to file a consolidated report on the conduct of Christian Michel James, the accused in Augusta Westland VVIP chopper scam, during his six-year judicial custody in Tihar jail.
Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal of the Rouse Avenue Court issued a notice to the jail superintendent and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in response to an application filed by Michel, seeking to check his eligibility for a remission on account of his conduct in prison.
Remission refers to the reduction or cancellation of a part of prison sentence of a person, in special circumstances, particularly on grounds of good conduct.
The DG of Delhi Prison is supposed to file the conduct report before the next date of hearing on March 18.
In April 2023, the Delhi Prison Administration announced that apart from convicts, remission will now also be granted to undertrials based on their good behaviour, leading to shorter sentences for those who are convicted later.
Michel, through his counsel, Advocate Aljo K Joseph, moved an application, wherein he had sought access to his conduct report prepared by the jail authorities during the last six years he had spent in prison.
The counsel in his plea has referred to Section 1178A of the Delhi Prison (Amendment) Rules, 2022, which states that both convicts and undertrial prisoners are eligible for remission for good conduct during the incarceration period.
The rule states that the Annual Good Conduct Report for a year during the undertrial period will earn one-month remission, once the undertrial prisoner concerned is convicted.
The counsel further stated that the conduct report was crucial for Michel as it contains the details of his behaviour during incarceration and given his imminent release on bail, he is seeking access to a copy of the conduct report to check his eligibility for remission.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Michel’s counsel argued that submitting the conduct report was a mandatory requirement on part of the jail administration as Michel completed one-third of his maximum sentence in the case, which the lawyer claimed was seven years.
The court, however, questioned how the maximum sentence in the case could be seven years when CBI added IPC Section 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc.)
Michel’s counsel submitted that the accused can only be tried in offences for which he has been extradited, according to the Extradition Treaty, and Section 467 was not in the treaty.
Advocate Joseph submitted that IPC section 420 in the case had the maximum sentence, which was seven years.
The court had on Tuesday allowed Michel to apply for a British passport from inside prison as part of fulfilling his bail conditions. Last week, Michel told the court that he wished to remain in judicial custody and attend the trial in the case through video-conferencing as he feared for his safety.
Michel told the court, “Delhi is just a larger prison for me. My family cannot come and meet me. There is a security threat. Every time I step out of prison, something happens... I request the court to let me stay inside the prison in judicial custody and attend the trial through VC (video conference).”
The court, however, rejected Michel’s submissions after orally noting that it cannot keep him inside prison and set bail conditions on him pressed by both CBI and ED.
Michel was being produced in person from the Tihar jail after the Delhi high court directed the trial court to impose bail conditions on Michel’s release, while asking him to furnish a personal bond in the sum of ₹5 lakh with one surety of the like amount.
The Delhi high court granted bail to Michel last week in the ED’s money laundering probe into the chopper deal, allowing him to walk out of jail as he has already been granted bail by the Supreme Court in February in the CBI’s case.
Michel was extradited from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in December 2018 and has been in custody since then.
While noting that Michel’s case was the worst kind of incarceration where the CBI had not completed trial despite filing two charge sheets and that the documents relied upon by the investigating agency had not been provided to him, the Supreme Court granted him bail on February 19 in the CBI’s case.
Michel approached the Delhi high court for bail in the ED case in connection with the VVIP chopper deal after the trial court dismissed his bail. Michel contended in his bail plea that he already spent six years in a jail for an offence where he could be awarded a maximum jail term of seven years. He also contended that the trial was yet to begin in the case.
The ED’s prosecutors claimed that Michel was a flight risk with no roots in India and that the conditions set by section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act were not met. Section 45 requires the court to be convinced that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the accused is not guilty and is not likely to commit any offence while out on bail.
Michel has been accused of being the alleged middleman in the deal to buy Agusta Westland choppers and was charged along with other accused under Section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The CBI in its first charge sheet filed on September 2017, had claimed that in 2004, officials at Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Special Protection Group (SPG) and Air Force and the ministry of defence agreed to change the mandatory service ceiling if the helicopters to benefit Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland.
The ED initiated a probe soon after into the money trail angle following the payment of the kickbacks in the deal.
