Court rejects bail plea of lawyer Rohit Tandon

A Delhi court today dismissed the bail plea of controversial lawyer Rohit Tandon, who was arrested in connection with a money laundering case post demonetisation.
The Enforcement Directorate had arrested him after a raid in connection with a black money probe which led to the alleged seizure of Rs 13.6 crore from his law firm.
Tandon's bail plea was rejected by Additional Sessions Judge R K Tripathi. ED strongly oppossed his contention on the ground that the investigation is at a crucial stage.
He was arrested on December 29 last year and after initial interrogation, he was sent to judicial custody for 14 days on January 2.

While seeking bail for Tandon, his counsel and senior advocate Vikas Pahwa said there was no evidence against the him and no proceeds of the alleged crime had been identified by ED yet.
He argued that ED has no right to arrest the accused as the source of funds involved in the alleged transactions was yet to be ascertained.

Rebutting the arguments of the accused, Special Public Prosecutor Vikas Garg, appearing for ED, said it was the source of funds and not just funds which had to be ascertained, an aspect on which the probe is going on, adding that the investigation is at a crucial stage.

Besides Tandon, two other accused -- Kolkata-based
businessman Paras M Lodha and Kotak Mahindra bank manager Ashish Kumar -- were arrested in separate PMLA cases.
They are also in the judicial custody.
Lodha has also moved a bail application which has been opposed by ED which has alleged that he was involved in the offence of money laundering which "frustrated" demonetisation policy of the government posing "serious threat" to financial health of the country.
Lodha was arrested on December 21, 2016 in connection with alleged conversion of over Rs 25 crore old currency into new notes and his bail plea will be heard on January 11.

Ashish Kumar was arrested on December 28 by ED in connection with its money laundering probe in a case of detection of nine alleged fake accounts with deposits of Rs 34 crore post demonetisation.