TOI correspondent from London: family of a British citizen Christian MichelThe alleged middleman was lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail for more than seven years. AgustaWestland helicopter scam In the case, efforts to secure his freedom have been stepped up, with his son Alois Michel calling on India to “follow its own extradition laws” and release his father. He compared his father’s case to that of fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi, who is accused of defrauding PNB of Rs 13,000 crore before fleeing to Britain.Speaking to TOI over phone from Madrid, Alois (28) said the Indian government had secured Modi’s extradition from Britain by promising that he would not be interrogated in India or face additional charges. Yet, in his father’s case, they were doing the opposite, he said.Extradited from the UAE in December 2018, Michel has been behind bars for longer than the maximum sentence given under Indian laws for the crime of bribing officials to secure a helicopter supply contract for AgustaWestland in 2010. However, Indian authorities have imposed an additional charge of counterfeiting valuable security, which carries a life sentence.Michel (64) is opposing it and alleging that it is a violation of Section 21 of India’s Extradition Act, which states that no additional charges can be brought against the person for whom he has been extradited. His petition challenging the move was rejected by the Delhi High Court in April, which ruled that Article 17 of the India-UAE extradition treaty allows the addition of “related offences”. The Supreme Court will hear this matter in July.“If they complied with Section 21 (Extradition Act), my father should have been released last year because he is not charged with anything else and he had served the maximum sentence for that charge (bribery) until last July,” Alois said. “My father has asked for exactly what India is promising to Nirav Modi. Just that India has to follow its own laws. That’s all. No special treatment. No political favouritism. Just to respect its own laws and hence, enforce the same guarantees that India is giving to a British court (in Modi’s case).“Alois said the family had been seeking a meeting with Indo-Pacific Minister Seema Malhotra for months. He said his brother Alaric was meeting him on Wednesday after he finally made his availability known.Michelle is also angry with the British government. Alois said his father was “fed up with the UK government not taking any action”.However, a spokesperson for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “The UK Government is committed to resolving Christian Michel’s case as quickly as possible. We will continue to provide consular assistance to Mr Michel and his family and have consistently raised his case directly with the Government of India.”