ED gets 2-day custody of Gautam Khaitan in AgustaWestland case

New Delhi (India), Jan 26 (ANI): A Patiala House Court here on Saturday allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to get 2-day custody of Gautam Khaitan, the lawyer accused in AgustaWestland case.
However, the court permitted Khaitan to have access to his counsel and medicines. Khaitan, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday, will now be produced in the court on January 28.
Khaitan was on Saturday produced before the duty magistrate Neeta Sharma. Advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey appeared for Khaitan, while public prosecutor DP Singh appeared on behalf of the ED.
Last week, the Income Tax Department sleuths raided offices and various other properties in Delhi-NCR belonging to him. I-T Dept claims to have gathered evidence against Khaitan for allegedly receiving kickbacks in other defence deals too, besides AgustaWestland during the UPA tenure.
On the recommendation of the I-T Department, ED had registered a case against him under the Black Money Act.
Last month, the Central government had managed the extradition of alleged middleman Christian Michel from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who is now in the custody of ED, which is probing allegations of money laundering.
Michel, the alleged middleman in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland chopper deal case, was extradited from the UAE on December 4 last year.
On July 18 last year, ED had filed prosecution complaint agstainst 34 accused persons and companies including Giuseppe Orsi and Bruno Spagnolini, former directors of Finmeccanica and AgustaWestland, former IAF chief SP Tyagi and others in the case of AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter scam.
The ED investigation revealed that the kickbacks were paid by AgustaWestland through two different channels.
One channel was handled by middleman Christian Michel James and the other channel was handled by Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke.
According to EDI investigations, Gerosa and Haschke in collusion with Tyagi brothers (cousins of former IAF chief SP Tyagi), allegedly conspired with Gautam Khaitan of M/s OP Khaitan and Company Auditors & Solicitors based in New Delhi. (ANI)