ED To Apprise Court About Status Of Probe Against Lobbyist Deepak Talwar For Allegedly Causing Huge Loss To Air India

The Enforcement Directorate has been directed by a Delhi court to keep it informed about the status of an investigation being carried out by the agency into a money laundering case related to negotiations which allegedly favored foreign private airlines and caused a loss to state-owned Air India.

The ED investigating offer of the case has been directed to appear before the court with details of his investigation.

Incidentally, the Delhi court has extended Talwar’s judicial custody until November 18.

The order came after Talwar’s lawyer told the court that since the accused is being kept in custody under the pretext of pending investigation, the ED should inform the court about what investigation has been carried out and why the accused needs to be kept in custody.

Earlier, Talwar’s lawyer stated that his client was denied bail earlier on the ground that investigation is pending into Gilt Management, which allegedly belongs to Talwar. He also added that Gilt Management's income tax documents are already with the authorities concerned as well as the ED.

His lawyer contended that as far as obtaining of evidence or documents under relevant section of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (Section 57) is concerned, it would take years together and the accused cannot be kept in custody until the long probe concludes.

It may be recalled that earlier, the ED had told the court that it needed to interrogate Talwar to get the names of Ministry of Civil Aviation, National Aviation Company of India Ltd and Air India officials, who had allegedly favored foreign airlines including Qatar Airways, Emirates and Air Arabia at the expense of Air India.

Talwar 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.