New Delhi: The Supreme Court has referred to another bench a plea by alleged middleman Christian Michel James seeking his release from jail in the ₹3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam case.
The Delhi High Court had dismissed James' petition on April 8, saying there was no merit in his plea. James, a British national, was extradited from Dubai in December 2018.
James has challenged a provision of the India-UAE extradition treaty and a trial court order that rejected his application for release from jail under Section 436A of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
He has also argued that he has completed seven years in jail and has undergone the maximum sentence possible for the offences for which he was extradited, rendering his continued detention in India illegal.
The high court had ruled that James was extradited to face trial for offences directly related to the factual background of the case, and therefore, his prosecution fell within the scope of the treaty.
James is among the three alleged middlemen being probed in the case, and the other two are Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court in the CBI case in February 2025 and by the high court in the ED case in March that year.
However, he continues to be in jail as he was unable to fulfil the bail conditions.
