Businessman Gautam Khaitan, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with alleged kickbacks in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland chopper deal case, has been sent to judicial custody till tomorrow by a Delhi court.
Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Sarvaria had on Sunday sent Khaitan in two-day judicial custody after ED submitted that he was not required for further custodial interrogation. Khaitan was produced before the court after expiry of his five-day ED custody. ED had earlier alleged in the court that Rs 360 crore was paid as kickbacks in the entire deal.
Khaitan has filed a bail application, through advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey, on which the chief metropolitan magistrate had issued notice to ED to give its response by tomorrow. The bail plea would also be taken up for hearing tomorrow when Khaitan would be produced in court.
In the bail plea, Khaitan said he should be enlarged on bail as he has always cooperated during the investigation and there was no apprehension that he would flee from justice. ED submitted that Khaitan was on board of Chandigarh-based company Aeromatrix which was allegedly a front firm for the financial dealings in the chopper deal.
Khaitan's counsel, however, had told the court that his client was nowhere connected with the day-to-day affairs of the firm and he had resigned from the post way back in October 2010. Khaitan was arrested under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by ED which had lodged a case in July this year against Khaitan, former IAF chief SP Tyagi and 19 others in the VVIP chopper deal case to probe alleged kickbacks.
ED had earlier said Khaitan was one of the directors in Aeromatrix and he had resigned from the post after the Italian police started its probe into the chopper deal.
The agency said a reference to Khaitan was also reportedly made in the Italian prosecutor's report filed in a court in Italy. He was earlier questioned by CBI in this case. ED had registered a case in this deal under PMLA, taking cognisance of a more-than-a-year-old CBI FIR.
ED has booked Tyagi, his family members, European nationals Carlo Gerosa, Christian Michel and Guido Haschke, four firms--Italy-based Finmeccanica, UK-based AgustaWestland and Chandigarh-based IDS Infotech and Aeromatrix, two companies based in Mauritius and Tunisia, few other firms and unknown persons in its criminal complaint.
The supply of 12 VVIP helicopters from AgustaWestland came under the scanner after the Italian authorities alleged that bribe was paid by the company to clinch the deal.
The Italian prosecutor who carried out the preliminary inquiry alleged that CEO of Finmeccanica, the parent company of UK-based AgustaWestland, had used the services of middlemen to bribe Indian officials.
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