The Enforcement Directorate on Monday conducted searches in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad on at least 10 premises of firms involved in the VVIP chopper deal money laundering case. It also froze shares worth over Rs. 86 crore held by companies in overseas locations.
Officials said the agency seized a number of documents during the searches from the premises of the firms and entities “connected” to the case. The agency had recently filed a fresh charge sheet in the case naming British national and alleged middlemen in the deal Christian Michel James as part of its probe.
The ED had registered a PMLA case in this regard in 2014 and named 21 people, including former Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi, in its FIR. It had also arrested Delhi-based businessman Gautam Khaitan, who was later released on bail.
It had earlier submitted that Khaitan was on the board of Aeromatrix, a Chandigarh-based company that was allegedly a front firm for the financial dealings in the chopper deal.
On January 1, 2014, India scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary Agusta Westland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of paying kickbacks to the tune of Rs. 423 crore by it for securing the deal.
The ED and the CBI had issued Letters Rogatory (judicial requests) to multiple countries to gather more leads and evidences in this case.
