Aviation scam: Delhi court sends lobbyist Deepak Talwar's close aide to judicial custody

A Delhi court on Friday sent Yasmin Kapoor, a close aide of corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar, to two-week judicial custody in a money laundering case related to negotiations that allegedly favoured foreign private airlines and caused loss to state-owned Air India.

Special Judge Anuradha Shukla Bhardwaj sent Kapoor to judicial custody till November 1 after advocate Nitesh Rana, the Enforcement Directorate's special public prosecutor, told the court that she was not required for further custodial interrogation in the case.

The ED had taken Kapoor into custody on October 3 after she was produced before the court.

The court had last month cancelled the anticipatory bail granted to Kapoor in the money laundering case after Rana submitted that she was misusing the bail.

There were reasons to believe that the tainted money, received from the foreign airlines, was used for the acquisition of Kapoor's residential property in New Delhi, Rana said.

The ED had claimed that several companies, in which Kapoor was a shareholder along with Talwar, received the proceeds of the crime.

Kapoor was granted anticipatory bail by the court on March 22, while Talwar was in judicial custody in the case lodged by the ED.

She had sought anticipatory bail claiming that the ED threatened her to take names and also to convince Talwar to give names of government officials or political functionaries, failing which she would be arrested.

Talwar was deported from the UAE in connection with the money laundering case.

The ED had earlier said that it needed to interrogate Yasmin and Talwar to get the names of Ministry of Civil Aviation, National Aviation Company of India Ltd and Air India officials, who had favoured the foreign airlines, including Qatar Airways, Emirates and Air Arabia.

The agency had claimed that entities directly or indirectly controlled by the accused received exorbitant amounts from Qatar Airways, Emirates and Air Arabia and submitted a chart of a total of USD 60.54 million allegedly received by firms directly or indirectly owned by Talwar between April 23, 2008 and February 6, 2009.

Talwar's alleged role in some aviation deals during the previous Congress-led UPA regime at the Centre was also under the scanner.

He was booked by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in criminal cases of corruption, while the Income Tax department charged him with tax evasion.