New Delhi: A Delhi Court has dismissed an application filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for cancellation of bail granted to Gautam Khaitan in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam case.
After canceling the application, Special Judge Arvind Kumar imposed additional bail conditions on Khaitan, including that he has to report in the ED office once in the week and not contact any witness of this case particularly one Pareen Khan.
The court made it clear that the conduct of the accused shall be considered at the time of considering the request of the accused of permission to travel abroad if made.
It is the case of the investigating agency that Khaitan floated and used various shell companies in his name, and also the name of his clients to launder the proceeds of crime arising out of 12 VVIP helicopter deal between the Indian government and AgustaWestland.
Counsel for the ED submitted that accused was granted bail on January 9, 2015 subject to the conditions that he shall not contact any of the witnesses and not tamper with evidence and join the investigation as and when required.
The Enforcement Directorate sought cancellation of the bail on the ground that the accused had not joined the investigation, contacted one of the witnesses Pareen Khan, and asked her not to join the investigation, painted the wrong picture of ED, and tried to scare her by giving an example of accused Shivani Saxena and that she will be detained if she comes to India to join the investigation.
It was also alleged by the agency that the accused sought permission to travel abroad in order to meet the witness. The ED has mainly based its case for cancellation of bail on WhatsApp chat conversation dated July 23, 2019, between him and Khan and statements of the latter record.
On the other hand, Counsel for the accused senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra and Advocate Pramod Dubey told the court that their client has been cooperated with the agency with regards to the investigation and attended all the court hearings in the last five years.
