A Patiala House’s special court on Saturday remanded lawyer Gautam Khaitan to two days’ custody of Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a fresh case of black money and money laundering. Khaitan, an accused in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case, was arrested by the ED on Friday. The Court granted only two days’ custody as opposed to seven days demanded by ED.
Metropolitan Magistrate Neetu Sharma sent the accused to custody after the ED alleged that he was operating and holding a number of foreign accounts illegally and thereby possessing black money and stash assets. During the hearing, Special prosecutors for ED, Advocate Davinder Pal Singh and NK Matta maintained that the present case had nothing to do with the alleged AgustaWestland scam. The ED counsels told the Court that income tax sleuths have discovered black money over Rs 500 crore. The ED said the accused Khaitan is running less of a law firm and more of a money laundering business. The ED counsels told the court that the accused who was arrested on Friday evening, is not co-operating with the investigation.
ED counsels said the lawyer had been “controlling” the modus operandi and was responsible for routing the money, misusing his connections and clients, including the ones inherited from his father, to launder the money with the use of a variety of accounts in Dubai, Mauritius, Singapore, Tunisia, Switzerland, the UK, and India.
It is further alleged that Khaitan used several Indian and foreign bank accounts to launder the money of various politicians abroad and influential persons in foreign countries.
Khaitan’s advocate P K Dubey opposed the ED’s submissions and accused the agency of forging documents, saying that the present case was related to AgustaWestland case for which Khaitan was already being prosecuted and was out on bail. The defence counsel claimed that Khaitan’s arrest is illegal and that the entire investigation pertains to AgustaWestland deal.
Sources in ED said a fresh criminal case under the PMLA was filed by the ED against Khaitan on the basis of a case filed by the Income Tax Department against him under Section 51 of the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015.
Khaitan has been alleged to have been operating and holding a number of foreign accounts illegally and thereby possessing black money and stash assets, ED said.
Khaitan stands charge sheeted- both by CBI and ED in the high profile VVIP chopper deal. He was arrested in September 2014 for his alleged involvement in the AgustaWestland deal. Khaitan was enlarged on bail in January 2015. Khaitan was again arrested along with Sanjeev Tyagi on December 9, 2016 by the CBI.
It is understood that the investigative agencies have got fresh leads against Khaitan after the questioning of Christian Michel, an alleged middleman in the VVIP chopper deal with AgustaWestland, who was extradited by India from Dubai in December last.
The Income Tax Department had last week carried out searches against Khaitan in this new case filed under the anti-black money law.
A charge sheet was also filed against him by the two agencies and he was currently out on bail, ED officials said. The ED in its charge sheet had elaborated on how the bribe money paid to clinch the chopper deal was “layered” and projected as “untainted money” by creating “fictitious invoices.” It mentioned how fictitious engineering contracts were created to hide the kickbacks allegedly paid by AgustaWestland to companies directly controlled by Khaitan and his associate Rajiv Saxena, a co-accused in the case.
ED’s supplementary charge sheet put the spotlight on Khaitan. It explained how some disclosures about his “complicity” came from Khaitan’s “associates, colleagues, staff.” In response to the letters rogatory written by India, documents were received from Mauritius, Singapore and Switzerland.
