The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted bail to alleged middleman Christian Michel James in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland money laundering case.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma, while granting the reprieve to James, said it was an "exceptional situation" where the accused was in custody for over 6.2 years but the trial had not yet commenced due to incomplete investigation.
With the relief in ED case, and the Supreme Court granting him bail in a related CBI case on February 18, James can walk out of prison subject to compliance with the conditions.
Justice Sharma said James' prolonged incarceration "without any foreseeable conclusion of trial" would infringe his fundamental right to a speedy trial under Article 21 of the Constitution, which overrode the statutory bar on bail under the anti-money laundering law.
Section 45 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the judge said, imposed stringent conditions for the grant of bail but the provision couldn't be interpreted in a manner to confine the accused in judicial custody for an indefinite period of time.
"The present case is not one where the applicant's custody is only marginally beyond the halfway mark. Instead, the applicant has been in custody for over six years and two months – which is alarmingly close to the maximum punishment – without even being adjudicated guilty," the order said.
The examination of over 100 witnesses was highlighted in the bail order, which also noted about a thousand documents relied upon by the prosecution.
"Given that the trial is unlikely to conclude before the applicant completes even seven years in jail, further incarceration would render the entire purpose of a trial meaningless," the 22-page bail order said.
The relief came on a bond and surety of Rs 5 lakh each aside from surrendering the passport before the trial court.
Taking into account the directions of the top court, the court asked the ED to request the trial court for imposing necessary conditions before releasing James on bail.
James, it added, would extend all co-operation in the investigation and during the trial.
The court reserved verdict on the bail application on February 28.
Probe agencies reported irregularities in the purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters from Italian manufacturing company AgustaWestland.
The ED counsel opposed James' plea, saying the British national did not meet the "twin tests" for grant of bail under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and was a flight risk.
His lawyer sought the relief on grounds that while the anti-money laundering law has a maximum punishment of seven years, he had spent over six years in jail, in violation of his fundamental right to a fair and expeditious trial.
It was also argued that there was no material evidence to connect him with the alleged offence and there was no reasonable likelihood of conclusion of investigation in the near future.
Advocates Aljo K Joseph, Vishnu Shankar and Sriram P represented James.
He was extradited from Dubai in December 2018 and was subsequently arrested by the CBI and the ED.
James is among the three alleged middlemen being probed in the case and the other two are Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa.
The CBI, in its chargesheet, claimed an estimated loss of 398.21 million euros (about Rs 2,666 crore) to the exchequer due to the deal that was signed on February 8, 2010, for the supply of VVIP choppers worth 556.262 million euros.
The ED chargesheet filed against James in June 2016 alleged he received 30 million euros (about Rs 225 crore) from AgustaWestland.
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