AugustaWestland Case Co-Accused Rajiv Saxena Sent to Judicial Custody Till Feb 18 Despite ED’s Plea

The Enforcement Directorate today told a Delhi Court that it does not require any further remand of Rajiv Saxena, co-accused in the AugustaWestland case.

New Delhi: The Patiala House Court on Tuesday extended the judicial custody of Rajiv Saxena, co-accused in AugustaWestland deal case, till February 18, despite ED clarifying earlier in the day that they do not need him in remand anymore.

In addition, corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar has been sent to two days ED remand in the money laundering case.

The Enforcement Directorate told the court that they do not need to remand Rajiv Saxena any further in the AugustaWestland deal case.

Rajiv Saxena had moved a bail plea in the morning, citing health issues. The court has now demanded Saxena’s latest medical report from AIIMS Delhi, latest by Wednesday.

A Delhi court on Friday had extended Dubai-based businessman Rajiv Saxena’s ED custody for four days until February 12 in the AgustaWestland deal case.

Special Judge Arvind Kumar extended Saxena’s custody after the ED told him that the accused was required to be confronted with voluminous documents and it would take two more days for him to finish writing answers to the set of questions given.

A Delhi court had earlier issued a non-bailable warrant against Saxena after it surfaced that he did not join the investigation despite repeated summons.

ABOUT SAXENA

Rajiv Saxena is facing money laundering charges for allegedly paying off various politicians and bureaucrats to influence the 2007 contract to supply 12 VVIP helicopters in favour of AugustaWestland. The chargesheet filed by the ED read that Saxena played a crucial role in providing the corporate structure to felicitate kickbacks from the India Air Force’s (IAF) deal with AugustaWestland.

The ED in its supplementary chargesheet elaborated on how the bribe money paid to clinch the AgustaWestland chopper deal was “layered” and projected as “untainted money” by creating “fictitious invoices”.

It also mentioned how fictitious engineering contracts were created to hide the kickbacks allegedly paid by AgustaWestland to companies directly controlled by lawyer Gautam Khaitan — now in ED custody — and Rajiv Saxena.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) security authorities picked up Saxena from his residence in Dubai on January 30 and extradited him to India later that night, along with corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar.