The Delhi High Court Monday requested the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to answer a plea by Avantha Group promoter Gautam Thapar, arrested in reference to a Rs 500-crore cash laundering case, claiming that he was produced earlier than the trial courtroom after expiry of statutorily mandated 24 hours.
Thapar has approached the excessive courtroom difficult a trial courtroom’s August 5 order by which his plea to declare his arrest as unlawful was dismissed with out recording causes.
Justice Yogesh Khanna requested the ED to file inside seven days, its counter affidavit to the 2 petitions filed by Thapar and listed the matter for additional listening to on August 27.
The excessive courtroom was knowledgeable that Thapar, who was despatched to 10-day ED custody, might be produced earlier than the trial courtroom later within the day.
Advocate Vijay Aggarwal, representing Thapar, argued that the time of arrest proven within the arrest memo is 7;55 PM on August 3. However, the search and seizure was performed by the ED officers at Thapar’s place at 8:30 AM on August 3 and he was arrested at the moment solely.
He mentioned that on August 4, Thapar was produced earlier than the particular decide, PMLA, after the expiry of statutorily mandated 24 hours interval opposite to the provisions of regulation and he was remanded ED custody for a day. On August 5, he was despatched to 10 days in ED custody.
Time of arrest is when the individual is first to place to restraint, that’s, 8:30 AM right here and never the time of arrest recorded by the arresting officers. He was not produced earlier than the courtroom inside 24 hours, Aggarwal argued.
Besides, Thapar has additionally sought a replica of Enforcement Case data Report (ECIR) registered by the ED, the copy of causes to imagine that Thapar was responsible of offence of cash laundering and a check-list ready earlier than the arrest.
Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, representing the ED, mentioned he would file a reply to the petitions and that there was no urgency within the matter.
According to the ED, Thapar was arrested on August 3 evening after the company carried out raids towards him and his linked companies in Delhi and Mumbai.
The company had advised the trial courtroom that investigation revealed that round Rs 500 crore price proceeds of crime have been allegedly laundered via Oyster Buildwell Pvt Ltd (OBPL), Jhabua Power Ltd (JPL), Jhabua Power Investment Ltd (JPIL), Avantha Power & Infrastructure Ltd (APIL), Avantha Realty Ltd (ARL) and so on. which have been being managed and beneficially owned instantly or not directly by Gautam Thapar.
The probe revealed that sham agreements have been made by these entities to fraudulently receive enormous quantity operating into greater than 500 crore from Yes Bank and additional by totally different modes of layering the contaminated quantity was laundered and the mortgage account thus turned NPA inflicting a lack of enormous public cash, it had alleged.
The case is having worldwide ramifications involving proceeds of crime stashed exterior the nation in type of immovable properties and financial institution accounts which is to be unearthed, it had mentioned.
The ED has been probing an alleged transaction between his firm Avantha Realty, Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor and his spouse, who’re already being investigated beneath the PMLA by the company.
The case of cash laundering was registerd by the ED after taking cognisance of an FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
“The (CBI) FIR alleges that Rana Kapoor, then MD and CEO of Yes Bank Limited, obtained illegal gratification in the form of a property in a prime location in Delhi at much less than the realisable market value belonging to Avantha Reality Ltd for sanction of a loan to ARL and for extending concessions, relaxations and waivers in the already existing credit facilities provided to Avantha Group companies and for advancing new and additional loans to them by Yes Bank Ltd,” the ED had mentioned earlier.
CBI had final 12 months booked Kapoor and his spouse Bindu for allegedly acquiring a bribe of Rs 307 crore via the acquisition of a bungalow in a tony Delhi space from a realty agency at half the market worth and facilitating round Rs 1,900 crore financial institution loans to it in return, the company had mentioned.
The CBI suspected that the discounted transaction for the 1.2 acre-bungalow on Amrita Shergill Marg in Delhi was a gratification to Kapoor via the corporate Bliss Abode Pvt Ltd in return for non-realisation of over Rs 1,900 crore in loans from Yes Bank to Gautam Thapar-promoted Avantha Realty and group corporations, it mentioned.
