Gautam Khaitan arrested in fresh money laundering case, sent to 2-day ED custody

Lawyer Gautam Khaitan, an accused in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case, has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a fresh case of alleged possession of black money and money laundering and remanded in a two-day custody of the agency by a court here.

Officials said Khaitan was placed under arrest Friday night under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and produced in the court on Saturday, where the ED sought his custody for seven days, claiming it had knowledge of unidentified assets which value more than Rs 500 crore and his custodial interrogation was required to unearth the conspiracy.

The fresh criminal case under the PMLA was filed by the ED against Khaitan on the basis of a case filed by the Income Tax Department against him under Section 51 of the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015.

During the court proceedings, ED's special public prosecutors D P Singh and N K Matta maintained that the present case had ...