Augusta Westland Money Laundering Case: Delhi Court Grants Bail To Accused Businessman Anoop Kumar Gupta

A Delhi Court on Monday granted bail to businessman Anoop Kumar Gupta, an accused in the Augusta Westland money laundering case. Gupta was arrested by Enforcement Directorate on 29th January this year.

Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar granted bail to Gupta subject to his furnishing of personal bond of Rs. 5 lacs with two sureties of like amount.

Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa along with Advocate Shadman Ahmed Siddiqui appeared for the applicant in the matter.

An FIR was registered by the CBI on 12th March 2013 under sec. 420 and 120B of IPC along with sec. 7, 8, 9, 12, 13(2) read with sec. 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. However, Gupta was not made an accused in the chargesheet filed dated 1st September 2017.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had registered a case on 3rd July 2014 and a complaint was then filed on 20th November 2014. 9 supplementary chargesheets have been filed by ED. Gupta was named as the 50th accused in the 9th supplementary chargesheet filed in the matter on 30th March 2021. A case was registered under sec. 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

According to the allegations made by ED against Gupta, it has been alleged that Gupta through his companies committed money laundering. It was submitted that M/S IDS Tunisia received proceeds of crime to the tune of Euro 24.37 Million from M/s Agusta Westland and the proceeds of crime was further transferred to M/s Interstellar Technologies Limited, Mauritius and part of the proceeds of crime received in RAKGT were further transferred to M/s KRBL Limited. Gupta was joint Managing Director of M/s KRBL Limited.

According to the ED, it was submitted that Gupta's presence was required for the investigation in the matter and therefore bail should not be granted to him. Moreover, it was submitted that there was a chance of Gupta tampering with the evidence and that witnesses may also be influenced by him.

It was furthermore submitted that according to sec. 45 of PML Act, stringent conditions on the grant have been placed by the legislature in offences concerning money laundering. According to the counsel appearing for ED, it was submitted that the twin conditions brought in by way of amendment of 2018 only highlights the gravity of the offence and the same must be considered by the Court while granting bail in such matters.

The Court after recording that the other co accused persons having similar or greater role have already been enlarged on bail, granted bail to Gupta subject to his furnishing of personal bond of Rs. 5 lacs with two sureties of like amount.

Click Here To Read Order