Delhi high court clears way for Christian Michel’s release on bail
Michel had sought a change in the March 4 bail condition requiring him to surrender his passport and furnish a ₹5 lakh surety bond.
New Delhi The Delhi High Court on Thursday modified the bail conditions for Christian James Michel, the British national accused in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam, clearing the way for his release from Tihar Jail.
Michel had sought a change in the March 4 bail condition requiring him to surrender his passport and furnish a ₹5 lakh surety bond.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma noted that Michel’s continued incarceration due to his inability to furnish a surety, owing to his foreign nationality, would not serve the ends of justice.
In a 17-page order, Justice Sharma replaced the earlier requirement of surety bond with a personal bond of ₹5 lakh and a cash surety of ₹10 lakh. She observed that imposing rigid bail conditions without considering Michel’s “peculiar situation” would amount to an “unjust deprivation of liberty.”
Michel had also sought relaxation of the condition requiring him to surrender his passport. His counsel, Advocate Aljo Joseph, had told the court that Michel’s passport had expired and that he had already applied for a renewal following the trial court’s directions. The process, he said, was likely to take four to eight weeks, making it impossible to comply immediately.
The High Court permitted Michel’s release without requiring him to deposit his passport right away. It directed the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) to ensure Michel did not leave the country and instructed the British High Commission to submit the renewed passport directly to the trial court.
“The bail condition imposed by this Court, in order dated 04.03.2025, stands modified, to the extent that applicant may be released on regular bail, without him depositing his passport immediately; however, the FRRO shall ensure that the applicant does not leave the country, and the British High Commission (or the concerned authority issuing the applicant’s passport) shall ensure that the applicant’s fresh passport, whenever the same is ready, is not handed over to the applicant, but directly deposited with the learned Trial Court under intimation to this Court,” Justice Sharma said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had opposed Michel’s plea, stating in its April 22 affidavit that only a local surety could ensure his presence at trial, given he had no roots in India. The agency had argued that relaxing Michel’s bail conditions would make securing his attendance difficult. It had also argued that Michel was duty bound to surrender his passport, valid or not, as directed earlier.
To address the ED’s concerns, the Court imposed additional safeguards against any risk of Michel absconding. Justice Sharma in her ruling said that the British national would be required to seek its permission even before the release of fresh passport and strictly adhere to city court’s direction of physically marking his attendance in the office of the ED or the concerned IO, once every 15 days after his release. “This Court also directs that the condition that the applicant shall deposit his passport with the learned Trial Court (as modified above) which shall not be released without the permission of the Court, shall be strictly adhered to. The applicant shall strictly adhere to the conditions imposed by the learned Trial Court, including marking his attendance physically in the office of DoE/concerned I.O. once every 15 days after his release,” the High Court said.
Michel was extradited from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in December 2018 and has remained in custody since then. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court in the CBI case on February 19 and in the ED case on March 4. He is accused of being the middleman in the deal to procure AgustaWestland helicopters and has been charged under Section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, along with other co-accused.
CBI had claimed in its first charge sheet filed on September 1, 2017 that, in 2004, officials at Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Special Protection Group (SPG), air force and the ministry of defence, agreed to change the mandatory service ceiling of VVIP helicopters from 6,000 metres to 4,500. This, it alleged, ultimately benefited Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland, which was given the contract for supplying 12 VVIP choppers in 2010 . The irregularities in the award of the contract to AgustaWestland led to an estimated loss of Euro 398.21 million (around ₹2,666 crore) to the government in the Euro 556.262 million ( ₹3,726.9 crore) contract, according to CBI.
The deal became one of the biggest controversies during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime. It was eventually scrapped in 2014.
ED alleged that Michel was a key figure in one of the channels from which money was laundered, and received around 42 million Euros from AgustaWestland, used to distribute kickbacks for influencing contracts.
