VVIP chopper: Court seeks Tihar's response on accused's plea

New Delhi: A special court has sought the response from Tihar jail authorities on the plea of a woman, jailed in Rs 3,600 crore VVIP choppers’ money laundering case, alleging she was not being provided proper medical facilities.

Special Judge Arvind Kumar directed the jail officials to appear before it on September 26 and explain why the accused Shivani Saxena, a director in two Dubai-based firms, was not been provided physiotherapy despite her doctor’s advice.

The court also extended Saxena’s judicial custody till October 3. After being told by the accused that she was not getting physiotherapy in the jail, the court noted that in its earlier order, the Jail Superintendent was directed to make necessary arrangements for physiotherapy of the accused immediately but despite that, it was not provided to her.

“The Jail Superintendent is directed to authorise some competent person to appear on September 26 and explain why the accused had not been provided physiotherapy despite the advice of the doctor,” the court said.
The ED had on September 13 filed a charge sheet against her and others. On September 15, Delhi High Court had denied bail to Saxena.

Shivani Saxena and her husband Rajiv are residents of Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, an archipelago which is home to the most expensive properties in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the charge sheet said. It alleged that the two Dubai-based firms were the entities “through which the proceeds of crime have been routed and further layered and integrated in buying the immovable properties/shares, among others” in this case.

The agency claimed that its probe had found that AgustaWestland, United Kingdom, had “paid an amount of Euro 58 million as kickbacks” through two Tunisia-based firms. “These companies further siphoned off the said money in the name of consultancy contracts to M/s Interstellar Technologies Limited, Mauritius and others which were further transferred to M/s UHY Saxena and M/s Matrix Holdings Ltd, Dubai and others,” the charge sheet had alleged.

The ED had also arrested in this case Delhi-based businessman Gautam Khaitan who is currently out on bail. It had registered a PMLA case in 2014 and named 21 people in its money laundering FIR. On January 1, 2014, India had scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica’s British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of kickbacks of Rs 423 crore paid by it to secure the deal.