Thursday, Apr 18, 2024 | Last Update : 08:49 AM IST
Gautam Khaitan held in money laundering case
The fresh criminal case under the PMLA was filed by the ED against Mr Khaitan on the basis of a case filed by the income tax department
New Delhi: Lawyer Gautam Khaitan, an accused on bail in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case, has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a fresh case of alleged possession of black money and money laundering and remanded in a two-day custody of the agency by a court here.
Officials said Mr Khaitan was placed under arrest on Friday night under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and produced in the court on Saturday, where the ED sought his custody for seven days, claiming it had knowledge of unidentified assets which value more than Rs 500 crore and his custodial interrogation was required to “unearth the conspiracy”. The income tax department had last week carried out searches against Mr Khaitan in this new case filed under the anti-black money law.
The fresh criminal case under the PMLA was filed by the ED against Mr Khaitan on the basis of a case filed by the income tax department. During the court proceedings on Saturday, Mr Khaitan’s advocate P.K. Dubey opposed the ED’s request for his custody.
He said that the present case was related to AgustaWestland case in which Mr Khaitan is already being prosecuted and is out on bail.
ED’s special public prosecutors D.P. Singh and N.K. Matta maintained that the present case had nothing to do with the alleged AgustaWestland scam.
Metropolitan Magistrate Neetu Sharma sent Mr Khaitan to ED custody for two days after the agency alleged that he was operating and holding a number of foreign accounts illegally and thereby possessing black money and stashing assets.
Mr Khaitan had been arrested by the ED and the CBI a few years ago in connection with their probe in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland case. A charge sheet was also filed against him by the two agencies.
It is understood that the investigative agencies have got fresh leads against Mr Khaitan after the questioning of Christian Michel, an alleged middleman in the VVIP chopper deal with AgustaWestland, who was extradited to India from Dubai in December last.
