The Enforcement Directorate moved a Delhi court Wednesday seeking to declare Aditya Talwar, son of corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar, a fugitive offender in a case related to negotiations favouring foreign private airlines and causing losses to national carrier Air India. Special Judge Anuradha Shukla Bharadwaj posted the application for hearing on Thursday.
In its application, ED’s special public prosecutor Nitesh Rana told the court that Aditya was not cooperating with the investigation. The court, meanwhile, cancelled the non-bailable warrant (NBW) against Aditya and directed him to appear before it on May 28.
Aditya’s counsel had sought cancellation of the NBW saying the ED summons had not reached Aditya’s address and hence the probe agency’s contention that he was not cooperating in the probe had no ground. To this, Rana submitted ED sent the summons to Aditya’s last known address. Talwar was deported from the UAE last week in connection with a money laundering case and is currently in judicial custody.
ED had earlier told the court through advocate A R Aditya that it needed to interrogate Talwar to get the names of officials of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, National Aviation Company of India Ltd and Air India, who favoured foreign airlines, including Qatar Airways, Emirates and Air Arabia.
The agency had claimed entities directly or indirectly controlled by the accused received exorbitant amounts from Qatar Airways, Emirates and Air Arabia and submitted a chart totalling $60.54 million received by firms directly or indirectly owned by Talwar between April 23, 2008 to February 6, 2009.
