PTI, NEW DELHI: A Delhi court Monday extended by four more days the ED custody of Rajeev Saxena, an accused recently deported from Dubai in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland money laundering case.
Saxena, a Dubai-based businessman, was deported from Dubai on January 31 and sent to four-day custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) the same day.
The court allowed ED’s plea seeking extension of his custody on the ground that he was required for confronting with Gautam Khaitan, a Delhi-based lawyer and a co-accused, who was earlier arrested in the case and is in the agency’s custody in another case.
ED’s special public prosecutors D P Singh and N K Matta had sought the custody for 10 more days, saying that both Saxena and Khaitan provided global corporate structure to launder money.
The ED alleged that in connivance with Khaitan, Saxena provided a global corporate structure for laundering illegal proceeds of the crime for payment to various political persons, bureaucrats and Air Force officials to influence the contract to supply 12 VVIP helicopters in favour of AgustaWestland.
“The custodial interrogation of Rajiv Saxena is required for the purposes of his confrontation with co-accused Gautam Khaitan, who is in custody of the ED in another case. The two said accused were the key figures in placing, layering and integrating the tainted money into the financial system,” the agency said.
ED’s advocate Samvedna Verma further said that, “To unearth and ascertain the end use of the funds received by him through his companies namely Interstellar Technologies, Mauritius, UHY Saxena, Dubai, Matrix and others in their accounts maintained and the role of his key aides in the projection of the said tainted money as untainted”.
The agency also said that Saxena’s further custodial interrogation was required for confronting with the voluminous material of approximately 20 GB, which was presently under process in a lab and was supposed to be received today.
