AgustaWestland case: CBI court rejects accused Sushen Mohan Gupta's bail plea

The Central Bureau Investigation (CBI) court on Saturday dismissed the bail plea of alleged arms dealer and businessman Sushen Mohan Gupta in connection with AgustaWestland money laundering case.

Gupta had filed an application for a bail plea on April 6. On April 15, after hearing his plea, the court reserved the order on the bail application for today.

Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) told a special CBI court that Gupta tried "his best, but could not destroy the evidence".

During the course of the hearing, ED's Special Public Prosecutors DP Singh and Naveen Kumar Matta had accused Gupta of 'influencing' Rajiv Saxena after the latter was allowed to turn "approver" in the case by the court. "When one of our witnesses wanted to be an approver, Gupta went to Dubai to desist him. He had started calling him when there was a buzz on diaries," had added the counsels.

The ED had previously said that two diaries in the form of a pen drive were recovered from the possession of Saxena, which allegedly belonged to Gupta.

Opposing Gupta's bail plea, ED had also contended that the statement given by Gupta in 2016 that he did not have any knowledge of Interstellar Technologies, a Mauritius-based company through which money was laundered, was "wrong".

"But later during the investigation, it came to light that Gupta was the one who gave the instructions for the transfer of funds," ED had added.

Gupta's counsels, Advocate Siddharath Aggarwal and PV Kapoor, however, had argued that he had joined the investigation as and when summoned.

"There is no scope of apprehension regarding his availability," they had said.

Gupta was arrested on March 26 and is currently lodged in Tihar jail. The court, on April 8, had sent Gupta to judicial custody till April 20.

In his bail plea, Gupta submitted that he fully cooperated with investigation agencies and had complied with all directions given by them, adding that he has neither been accused of evading the law nor has he interfered with the investigation in any manner.