Last week, the court had sent Gautam Khaitan to the probe agency’s custody after alleging that he was operating and holding a number of offshore accounts in an illegal manner and was stashing assets. (Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)A Delhi court on Saturday extended Enforcement Directorate’s custody of lawyer Gautam Khaitan by another six days. Khaitan is charged with allegations of financial irregularities such as possession of black money and money laundering.
Last week, the court had sent Khaitan to the probe agency’s custody after alleging that he was operating and holding a number of offshore accounts in an illegal manner and was stashing assets.
The fresh criminal cases under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was filed against Khaitan by ED on the basis of a case filed by the Income Tax Department against him under Section 51 of the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015.
Khaitan is an accused in the VVIP chopper deal case as he is alleged to have acted as a key middleman who floated a company called IDS Infotech and used it to pay large sums of money to Rajiv Saxena, another accused in the case. Sources told The Indian Express that Saxena would be confronted with Khaitan during questioning.
The ED told the court that Saxena had floated multiple companies in collusion with Khaitan to route kickbacks in the deal to “various political persons, bureaucrats and Air Force officials” to influence the deal in favour of the British company.
