AgustaWestland Case: Custody Of Anoop Gupta Extended Till February 12

Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court on Wednesday extended the Enforcement Directorate remand of businessman Anoop Gupta, who was arrested in the AgustaWestland money laundering case, till February 12.

While extending Gupta's remand, Special Judge Arvind Kumar said, "Keeping in view the facts and circumstances, submissions made by the parties, the ED remand of accused is further extended till February 12, 2021."

"....The Enforcement Directorate has sought further police custody remand of accused Anoop Gupta on the ground that he is required to be confronted with a witness who has come from Dubai and for confronting some documents and to find out money trail of proceeds of crime, " the court noted.

The Counsel for ED, Advocate NK Matta, and Advocate Faraz Gupta submitted that a witness has come from Dubai whose statement has already been recorded and this witness is to be confronted to accused Anoop Gupta as it is very essential for the investigation.

It was also submitted that this case involves voluminous documents and some of the documents are yet to be confronted to accused.

The ED counsel submitted that during police custody remand of the accused, a number of witnesses were called and examined. It was also submitted that the brother of the accused namely Anil Mittal was to produce some documents and he sought time to produce the documents.

Earlier, ED submitted that 70 million euros (proceeds of crime) were laundered through two channels for payments of kickbacks to various political persons, bureaucrats, air force officials, and others to influence the contract for the supply of 12 VVIP Helicopters in favour of M/s AgustaWestland International Limited.

ED claimed that it had received some documents on December 17, 2020, which shows that the accused was controlling financial transactions of the said company. It is submitted that bribe was paid from 2008-2010. ED also said Anoop Gupta gave an evasive reply during questioning and needs to be confronted with voluminous records.

The AgustaWestland case is being probed by CBI and ED. It has been alleged that bribes were paid during the UPA regime to "middlemen", perhaps even politicians, when India agreed to buy 12 AgustaWestland helicopters built by Italian defence manufacturing Company Finmeccanica at an estimated cost of Rs 3,600 crore. Later in 2014, the said deal was scrapped by NDA Government.