Chopper deal: Gautam Khaitan gets bail

Businessman Gautam Khaitan was today granted bail by a Delhi court in a money laundering case related to Rs 3,600 crore VVIP chopper deal, more than three months after he was arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Special CBI Judge V K Gupta allowed the bail application of Khaitan, who was arrested in September last year in the case in which CBI is also running a separate probe.
During the arguments, ED had opposed Khaitan's bail plea alleging that he was behind the "parking" of alleged kickbacks in the matter and the agency was conducting further probe into the matter.
ED's prosecutor N K Matta had argued that a total of 70 million Euros (Rs 360 crore) was paid as kickbacks in the deal.

Senior counsel P V Kapur and advocate P K Dubey, appearing for Khaitan, had countered ED's submissions arguing that the other accused, who were allegedly the recipients of purported bribe, have not been arrested so far while Khaitan was behind the bars for over three months.
The court had earlier taken cognisance of ED's charge sheet filed in the case against five accused, including two Italian nationals, Gerosa Carlo Valentino Ferdinand and Haschke Guido Ralph.
ED has also named Gautam Khaitan's wife Ritu Khaitan and Chandigarh-based firm Aeromatrix Info Solutions Pvt Ltd as accused in the case. These five accused have been summoned for January 19 by the court.

They were chargesheeted by ED for offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).