New Delhi, May 4 (India Today) : A day after his explosive interview to India Today, the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam Christen Michel has said that he was put under pressure by Indian investigative agencies to incriminate the Gandhi family.

In a letter written to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and shared exclusively with India Today, Christen Michel has alleged that the Modi government tried to cut a deal with him.

According to Michel, a number of people contacted him with the proposal that he denounce any member of the Gandhi family and in turn all the charges against him would be dropped.

In this letter sent to the Registrar of the International Tribunal on 23 December 2015, Michel wrote, "At this time it was made very clear to me through a number of obtuse channels, if I was willing to denounce and member of the Gandhi family relating to the so called VVIP helicopter scandal all charges and investigations against me would be dropped. I responded in the negative and without so much as a summons and within one week an arrest warrant was issued against me and within a few weeks after that the Indian authorities then contacted Interpol and used this mechanism to put further pressure on me to agree to their political agenda."

This letter was written to the International Tribunal four months before the Italian court delivered its verdict in the Augusta Westland corruption scam.

While there is an international arrest warrant against Michel, the middleman's letter raises questions on whether pressure was indeed made to bear on him to get him to incriminate the Gandhi family.