Lawyer Gautam Khaitan sent to five days’ ED custody in Money Laundering case

Special CBI Court has today remanded lawyer Gautam Khaitan to five days’ custody with the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a case under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015..“Keeping in view the facts and circumstances, submissions made by the parties, I deem it fit to grant 5 days PC remand of the accused. Accordingly, the accused in remanded to PC for 5 days.”, Judge Arvind Kumar ordered..As per the Agency, the case involves nearly Rs. 800 crore as proceeds of crime under Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002..ED had today sought seven days’ police custody of Khaitan on the ground that there are voluminous documents which are to be placed before him for a thorough interrogation. It also submitted that the custodial interrogation of the accused was required to ascertain all known as well as unknown entities/accounts in which Khaitan has a beneficial interest and thus could have been used for the purpose of money laundering..The Court was also informed that ED had details of certain undisclosed bank accounts belonging to Khaitan as well as other assets and financial transactions outside India. For these transactions, Khaitan has been booked under Sections 50, 51(1) read with Section 54 of the Black Money Act and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015 for the assessment years 2019-2020, it was further stated..Appearing for Khaitan, Advocate PK Dubey vehemently objected to his remand on the ground that he was being falsely involved in the present case, and that false documents were being prepared by ED to implicate him..Stating that Khaitan’s arrest was bad in law, he argued that the Agency had failed to disclose any cogent ground for his police remand..The Court was also informed that the case regarding tax evasion was already pending before another Delhi Court, hence, continuing the present proceeding would result in double jeopardy..Khaitan is also one of the accused in the AgustaWestland chopper case. He is accused of receiving kickbacks for the Rs. 3,600 defense deal with Italian chopper manufacturer AgustaWestland for 12 AW-101 choppers during the Congress party led-UPA era in 2010..Pursuant to a fresh Enforcement Case Investigation Report, Khaitan was arrested by ED on January 26 under the Black Money Act..Rejecting the objection that Khaitan was being investigated over and over again in relation to the AgustaWestland case, Duty Magistrate Neeta Sharma had then remanded Khaitan to two days’ ED custody after observing,.“..if any transaction, or any new offence is disclosed on which a sperate chargesheet can be filed, then that offence needs a separate investigation.”.Another co-accused in the AgustaWestland scam, Christian Michel was sent to judicial custody till February 26 by a Special CBI Court earlier this month. Michel was extradited from Dubai in December last year. Michel is also accused of having helped AgustaWestland grab the 2010 deal..Advocate DP Singh appeared for ED.