VVIP chopper: Woman director seeks bail

A woman director of two Dubai- based firms, arrested in a money laundering case relating to the Rs 3,600 crore VVIP chopper deal, today sought bail from a special court.
Shivani Saxena, an "active" director of Dubai-based M/s UHY Saxena and M/s Matrix Holdings, told special judge Arvind Kumar that the investigation against her was complete as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has already filed a charge sheet.
Senior advocate Mohit Mathur, appearing for Saxena, told the court that the allegations against her were not serious because in the CBI case, based on which the current money laundering matter was filed, she was not an accused.

During the hearing which remained inconclusive, the advocate said that Saxena was suffering from various ailments and she should be granted the relief. The court will resume the hearing tomorrow.
The ED had on September 13 filed a charge sheet against her and others.
Shivani Saxena and her husband Rajiv are residents of Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, an archipelago which is home to the most expensive properties in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the charge sheet said.

The ED alleged that the two Dubai-based firms were the entities "through which the proceeds of crime have been routed and further layered and integrated in buying the immovable properties/shares, among others" in this case.

The agency claimed that its probe had found that AgustaWestland, United Kingdom, had "paid an amount of Euro 58 million as kickbacks" through two Tunisia-based firms.
"These companies further siphoned off the said money in the name of consultancy contracts to M/s Interstellar Technologies Limited, Mauritius and others which were further transferred to M/s UHY Saxena and M/s Matrix Holdings Ltd, Dubai and others," the charge sheet had alleged.
The ED had also arrested in this case Delhi-based businessman Gautam Khaitan who is currently out on bail. It had registered a PMLA case in 2014 and named 21 people in its money laundering FIR.

On January 1, 2014, India had scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of kickbacks of Rs 423 crore paid by it to secure the deal.