Delhi court denies bail to Avantha Group’s promoter in money laundering case
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Saturday dismissed the bail plea of Avantha Group promoter Gautam Thapar, arrested in connection with a Rs 500-crore money laundering case.
Special judge Sanjeev Aggarwal noted that since huge loss of public money was involved in the case, it needed to be viewed seriously and considered as grave offence affecting the
economy of the country as a whole and thereby causing serious threat to the financial health of the nation. The judge observed that economic offences have deep-rooted conspiracies
The court noted that there were allegations that proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 500 crore were generated in this case and were laundered and utilised in repayment of existing loans and meeting other expenses in conspiracy with the
other accused persons arraigned in the complaint. “Considering the overall facts and circumstances, since the allegations against the accused are grave and serious in nature, no ground for bail is made out at this
stage. Consequently, the bail application of accused Gautam Thapar is dismissed,” the judge said. The court accepted the arguments made by special public prosecutors Amit
Mahajan and N K Matta, appearing for the Enforcement Directorate (ED), that the chances of accused fleeing the country cannot be ruled out. The bail application, filed by Karanjawala & Co on behalf of Thapar, had claimed
that the accused was not required for the investigation and that no purpose would be served by keeping him in further custody. The court recently took cognisance of a charge sheet filed in the case against
Thapar and 20 others. The final report alleged that the accused committed criminal breach of trust, cheating, criminal conspiracy and forgery for diversion and misappropriation of
public money from 2017 to 2019 and caused a loss to the tune of Rs 466.51 crore to YES Bank.
The ED was probing an alleged transaction between Thapar’s company Avantha Realty and YES Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor and his wife, who are already being
investigated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the agency.
The money laundering case was filed by the ED after taking cognisance of an FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
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