<p>A Delhi court today issued notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking its response on October 7 on the bail plea of businessman Gautam Khaitan who has been arrested in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland chopper deal case.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Khaitan, who is presently in ED's custody till October 5, moved an application seeking bail in the case before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Khanagwal who issued a notice to the agency for October 7.<br /><br />In the bail plea, Khaitan said he should be enlarged on bail as he has always cooperated during the investigation and there was no apprehension that he would flee from justice.<br />Advocate P K Dubey, appearing for Khaitan, who as per ED's allegation was on board of Chandigarh-based company Aeromatrix which was allegedly a front firm for the financial dealings in the chopper deal, told the court that his client was nowhere connected with the day-to-day affairs of the firm and he had resigned from the post way back in October 2010.<br /><br />ED had yesterday alleged in the court that Rs 360 crore was paid as kickbacks in the entire deal.<br /><br />The court had yesterday remanded Khaitan to ED's custody for five more days observing he was required to be confronted with approximately 188 documents retrieved from hard disk of a computer during his initial custody remand and proceeds of the crime were required to be identified.<br /><br />Khaitan was arrested under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by ED which had lodged a case in July this year against Khaitan, former IAF chief S P Tyagi and 19 others in the VVIP chopper deal case to probe alleged kickbacks. <br /><br />ED had earlier said Khaitan was one of the directors in Aeromatrix and he had resigned from the post after the Italian police started its probe into the chopper deal.<br /><br />As per ED, a reference to Khaitan was also reportedly made in the Italian prosecutor's report filed in a court in Italy.<br /><br />He was earlier questioned by CBI in this case. ED had registered a case in this deal under PMLA, taking cognisance of a more-than-a-year-old CBI FIR.<br /><br />ED has booked Tyagi, his family members, European nationals Carlo Gerosa, Christian Michel and Guido Haschke, four firms--Italy-based Finmeccanica, UK-based AgustaWestland and Chandigarh-based IDS Infotech and Aeromatrix, two companies based in Mauritius and Tunisia, few other firms and unknown persons in its criminal complaint.<br /><br />The supply of 12 VVIP helicopters from AgustaWestland came under the scanner after the Italian authorities alleged that bribe was paid by the company to clinch the deal.<br />The Italian prosecutor who carried out the preliminary inquiry alleged that CEO of Finmeccanica, the parent company of UK-based AgustaWestland, had used the services of middlemen to bribe Indian officials. <br /></p>
<p>A Delhi court today issued notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking its response on October 7 on the bail plea of businessman Gautam Khaitan who has been arrested in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland chopper deal case.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Khaitan, who is presently in ED's custody till October 5, moved an application seeking bail in the case before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Khanagwal who issued a notice to the agency for October 7.<br /><br />In the bail plea, Khaitan said he should be enlarged on bail as he has always cooperated during the investigation and there was no apprehension that he would flee from justice.<br />Advocate P K Dubey, appearing for Khaitan, who as per ED's allegation was on board of Chandigarh-based company Aeromatrix which was allegedly a front firm for the financial dealings in the chopper deal, told the court that his client was nowhere connected with the day-to-day affairs of the firm and he had resigned from the post way back in October 2010.<br /><br />ED had yesterday alleged in the court that Rs 360 crore was paid as kickbacks in the entire deal.<br /><br />The court had yesterday remanded Khaitan to ED's custody for five more days observing he was required to be confronted with approximately 188 documents retrieved from hard disk of a computer during his initial custody remand and proceeds of the crime were required to be identified.<br /><br />Khaitan was arrested under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by ED which had lodged a case in July this year against Khaitan, former IAF chief S P Tyagi and 19 others in the VVIP chopper deal case to probe alleged kickbacks. <br /><br />ED had earlier said Khaitan was one of the directors in Aeromatrix and he had resigned from the post after the Italian police started its probe into the chopper deal.<br /><br />As per ED, a reference to Khaitan was also reportedly made in the Italian prosecutor's report filed in a court in Italy.<br /><br />He was earlier questioned by CBI in this case. ED had registered a case in this deal under PMLA, taking cognisance of a more-than-a-year-old CBI FIR.<br /><br />ED has booked Tyagi, his family members, European nationals Carlo Gerosa, Christian Michel and Guido Haschke, four firms--Italy-based Finmeccanica, UK-based AgustaWestland and Chandigarh-based IDS Infotech and Aeromatrix, two companies based in Mauritius and Tunisia, few other firms and unknown persons in its criminal complaint.<br /><br />The supply of 12 VVIP helicopters from AgustaWestland came under the scanner after the Italian authorities alleged that bribe was paid by the company to clinch the deal.<br />The Italian prosecutor who carried out the preliminary inquiry alleged that CEO of Finmeccanica, the parent company of UK-based AgustaWestland, had used the services of middlemen to bribe Indian officials. <br /></p>