AgustaWestland case: Advocate Gautam Khaitan granted bail by court

New Delhi, Jan 26: Advocate Gautam Khaitan, being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case, was granted bail by court on Tuesday. The agency says Khaitan has several illegal properties.

Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar had earlier deferred the order for April 16 saying that he wanted to go through the charge-sheet and other files in the case before pronouncing the order.

The ED had arrested Khaitan in January this year, in a case of money laundering based on a case lodged by the Income Tax Department under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act. He is in judicial custody since February 8.

The ED in its earlier charge sheet in 2018 had accused 34 Indian and foreign individuals and companies, including lawyer Gautam Khaitan of laundering money to the tune of around 28 million Euro. The others named in the charge sheet were Italian middlemen Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke, and Finmeccanica, the parent company of AgustaWestland, and ex-IAF chief SP Tyagi.

It also claimed that Khaitan also received proceeds of crime in personal bank accounts opened in his name and the accounts of his companies in India and abroad.