AgustaWestland case: Court sends alleged middleman Sushen Mohan Gupta to ED custody

A Special CBI court on Tuesday sent Sushen Mohan Gupta, an alleged middleman in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland chopper deal case, to Enforcement Directorate custody for four days.

Gupta was produced before Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar by ED which arrested him this morning.

This is the first arrest a day after Rajiv Saxena, an accused in the case, was allowed to turn "approver" by the court. Saxena had moved an application in this regard on February 27.

During the hearing today, counsel DP Singh and Naveen Kumar Matta, appearing for ED, contended that the agency recovered "two diaries" in the form of a pen drive from the possession of Saxena and that these allegedly belonged to Gupta.

"We have received replies from Mauritius to Letters Rogatory (LR). There are specific entries regarding bank statements pertaining to AgustaWestland," said ED while seeking custodial interrogation of Gupta to confront him with documents and evidence it has received.

The agency also submitted that all the documents pertain to a relevant period and that it has found entries related to "Interstellar" which pertains to Gupta.

Siddharth Aggarwal and PV Kapoor, appearing on the behalf of Gupta, opposed the remand application of ED and told the court that their client was taken into custody "merely on the grounds of suspicion."

They said Gupta showed his willingness to take part in the probe but his custodial interrogation is "not required" right now.

They alleged that investigation agencies took documents from their client . "In last two years, we have appeared 20 times before ED and 10 times before CBI," they added.

According to the charge sheet filed by ED, alleged middleman Christian Michel had received kickbacks to the tune of 30 million Euros from AgustaWestland for the deal involving the purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters.

The deal, signed in 2007, was scrapped in 2013 after bribery allegations surfaced.