The Enforcement Directorate (ED) told a court here Thursday that businessman Gautam Khaitan, arrested for graft in the AgustaWestland chopper deal, was actively involved in the illegal money transaction in the case.
The ED told Special Judge V.K. Gupta that Khaitan was actively involved in the activities connected with the proceeds of crime.
"It is pertinent to mention that the applicant (Khaitan) is projecting himself to be a professional but the investigation so far has revealed that he was actively involved as Director in the companies involved in the offence of money laundering, and as per the ongoing investigations done under PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act), he was actively involved in respect of the illegal transactions relating to proceeds of crime," ED counsel Navin Kumar Matta told court.
Khaitan, who was on the board of Chandigarh-based company Aeromatrix, was arrested a day after the investigation agency conducted a search on his premises Sep 22.
"It is clear from investigation that Gautam Khaitan is involved in the activities connected with the proceeds of crime and it is very much in his knowledge that the money transferred from IDS Tunisia to Intersteller Technologies Ltd., Mauritius, and further transferred to various other companies/account of Carlos Gerosa and Guido Hashke, was tainted money," ED counsel said.
"Further, even he (Khaitan) and his wife also received the money from the account of Interstellar Technologies Ltd., Mauritius."
The investigating agency added that during the course of investigation, it is also noticed that FDI amount of approximately Rs.5,00,00,000 which was sent by Guido Hashke and Carlos Gerosa from the account of M.L. Administrators Mauritius, is also tainted money.
It requested the court to reject his bail, saying that there is every likelihood of the applicant fleeing from justice, tampering with the evidence and hampering the ongoing investigation which is at very crucial stage.
However, defence counsel said the ED has found his client as the softest target and contended that ED has not interrogated the bribe taker and bribe giver in the case.
"The poor man (Khaitan) was put behind the bars and was interrogated for 12 hours during his police custody," counsel added.
The court reserved the order on the bail plea for Oct 13 and extended the judicial custody of Khaitan till Oct 21.
The supply of 12 VVIP helicopters from British firm AgustaWestland came under scrutiny after Italian authorities alleged that a bribe had been paid by the company to clinch the deal with India, inked in February 2010.
India terminated the Rs.3,600 crore (about $770 million) deal with AgustaWestland for the purchase of the choppers Jan 1, 2014, following allegations of kickbacks having been paid to fix the deal.
India had paid around 45 percent of the total contract value for the choppers which were meant to ferry the president, the prime minister and other VIPs.
The ED had registered a case in this deal in July 2013 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and booked former Indian Air Force chief S.P. Tyagi, foreign nationals Carlo Gerosa, Christian Michel and Guido Haschke, companies like AgustaWestland, its parent company Italy-based Finmeccanica, Chandigarh-based IDS Infotech and Aeromatrix as well as two companies based in Mauritius and Tunisia, a few other firms and unknown persons in its criminal complaint.
Twenty-one entities have been named by the ED in the case.
A separate case was lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation March 2013 against Tyagi and others in connection with the kickback allegations.
