New Delhi, Jul 4 (IANS): A day after the Enforcement Directorate attached a bank account of AgustaWestland chopper scam accused Gautam Khaitan's wife Ritu Khaitan, the agency on Thursday said that it has attached properties worth over Rs 15 crore of the KRBL Ltd in the Embraer aircraft deal case.
A senior ED official said here said that assets worth Rs 15.32 crore of KRBL Ltd, which has Gautam Khaitan has one of its directors, has been attached under the sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The attached assets includes land and a rice mill factory located at in Punjab's Sangrur.
The ED has filed a case against of money laundering on the basis of FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation against Embraer SA in Brazil, unknown Defence Ministry officials, alleged middleman Vipin Khanna, Interdev Aviation Services Pvt Ltd, Singapore and others.
According to the ED officials, Embraer Brazil had engaged Khanna to secure the contract for supplying EMB-145 aircraft to India government as a platform for the Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) project.
The official said that investigation revealed that the accused had laundered kickbacks to India-based KRBL Ltd via its Dubai-based entity KRBL DMCC. "KRBL Ltd played an active role to bring the proceeds of crime paid as commission by Embraer SA, Brazil to India via Dubai through banking channels," the official said.
It was also found that Khaitan, who is known to Khanna, had played a crucial role to launder this money totalling $5.6 million (approx Rs 26 crore).
The official said that Khaitan had told another KRBL Ltd Director Anoop Gupta that he had got a deal wherein some passenger aircraft will be sold to a company in Austria and no investment was to be made from the company. He would have to be an introducer and he would receive a commission of about $3 million.
An amount of Rs 15.32 crore out of total kickbacks of approximately Rs 26 crore was received in the KRBL Ltd against the contract awarded to Embraer Brazil SA by India, the official said.
This money was received in KRBL DMCC, transferred to Rawasi Al Khaleej General Trading LLC in Dubai, went back to KRBL DMCC in Dubai and was then transferred to the bank accounts of KRBL Ltd in India in the form of dividend, the official said.
"Further, KRBL DMCC in Dubai executed a sham agreement with Interdev Aviation Services Pte Ltd, Singapore to launder the proceeds of crime to India through banking channels," he said.
Khaitan, who was arrested on January 25 this year, is, according to ED officials, a habitual offender and there are other pending cases of corruption and money laundering against him, apart from the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case.