AgustaWestland probe: Delhi court sends ‘middleman’ Sushen Mohan Gupta to four-day ED custody

Gupta was arrested on the basis of information provided to the agency by Rajiv Saxena, another accused in the alleged VVIP chopper scam, who on Monday turned approver in the case. Saxena has been granted pardon on the condition that he discloses information to authorities.

ED had arrested Saxena in January this year. He is accused of floating several companies to route kickbacks to “various political persons, bureaucrats and Air Force officials” to influence the deal in favour of the British company.

ED is investigating allegations of money laundering in a defence deal signed by the then Congress-led UPA government with UK-based helicopter manufacturing company AgustaWestland. The Rs 3,600 crore deal was for the purchase of 12 AW101 helicopters for the Indian Air Force. The deal was later scrapped in 2014.

Gupta’s arrest is the third major development in the defence deal probe by ED. Earlier, in December 2018, the probe agency had extradited British national Michel Christian, a key accused in the case, from the UAE. The 54-year-old is accused of brokering the deal between officials of AgustaWestland and Indian politicians.