Bank of Baroda case: Court sends 4 accused to two-week judicial custody

Four persons, including an HDFC bank employee, arrested on alleged money laundering charges in the Rs 6,000-crore remittances case of a Bank of Baroda (BoB) branch, were on Friday remanded to two weeks judicial custody by a Delhi court.

Accused Kamal Kalra, working with the HDFC Bank's foreign exchange division, Chandan Bhatia, Gurucharan Singh Dhawan and Sanjay Aggarwal were produced before District Judge Yogesh Khanna after expiry of their custodial interrogation by the Enforcement Directorate.

The court sent the accused to judicial custody till November 6 after ED's special public prosecutor Naveen Kumar Matta submitted that they were not required for further custodial interrogation.

Matta also told the court that the agency has ascertained the money trail of Rs 700 crore out of a total of Rs 6,000 crore.

ED had arrested the four accused on October 13 while terming it a case of trade-based money laundering where accused traders allegedly evaded custom duties and taxes to generate slush funds.

According to ED sources, all the accused were alleged middlemen for at least 15 fake companies, out of the total 59 which were involved in perpetrating the economic crime unearthed recently and also being probed by the CBI.

They have been arrested for the alleged offences under the provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).