AgustaWestland case: Court defers hearing on plea seeking dismissal of Gautam Khaitan's bail

A special court on Saturday deferred the hearing on an application filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking cancellation of bail and revocation of permission to travel abroad granted to Gautam Khaitan, a prime accused in the AgustaWestland scam case.

The matter was deferred in view of Delhi High Court advisory related to the spread of coronavirus in the national capital.

The hearing was earlier scheduled for March 28.

ED's special public prosecutor advocate Naveen Kumar Matta has submitted that he had filed an application for issuance of supplementary letter of request Under Section 57 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 for collection of evidence from the US government.

According to Section 57 of PMLA, if an application is made to a special court that any evidence is required for the investigation or proceedings, the court may issue a letter of request to the authority in the contracting state competent to deal with the request.

Special Judge Arvind Kumar is hearing two applications filed by the ED seeking cancellation of bail and revocation of permission to travel abroad of Khaitan.

The economic offences watchdog, through the application, also prayed not to allow Khaitan to travel abroad as he may tamper with witnesses. Khaitan is currently on bail.

The ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have filed charge-sheets against the accused, who was arrested in December 2016.

According to ED, Khaitan, who was a Director in KRBL Ltd, had played a crucial role to launder the proceeds of crime totalling approximately Rs 26 crore.

The AgustaWestland case pertains to alleged irregularities in purchase of 12 VVIP choppers from Italy-based Finmeccanica's British subsidiary Agusta Westland.

The deal was scrapped by the NDA government in 2014 over the alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of payment of kickbacks for securing the deal.