New Delhi, Oct 30 (IANS): A Delhi court on Saturday rejected the bail plea of Avantha Group promoter Gautam Thapar in connection with a money laundering case relating to an alleged bank loan fraud. Rouse Avenue Court's Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal refused to entertain the bail plea of Thapar, who is currently in judicial custody.

He was represented by advocates Vijay Aggarwal and Sandeep Kapur and a team comprising Vir Sandhu, Rajat Soni, Vivek Suri, Niharika Karanjawala, Apoorva Pandey, Mridul Yadav, Abhimanshu Dhyani and Sahil Modi. The team had briefed advocate Vijay Aggarwal to appear on behalf of Thapar. Advocate Amit Mahajan and Public Prosecutor NK Matta represented the Enforcement Directorate in the matter.

On August 3, the probe agency had arrested Gautam Thapar in a money laundering case following searches at multiple locations in Delhi and Mumbai. An ECIR has been registered against Thapar, Avantha Realty Ltd., Oyster Buildwell Pvt. Ltd. and others, alleging criminal breach of trust, cheating, criminal conspiracy and forgery for diversion/misappropriation of public money during the period 2017 to 2019.

Thapar, promoter of several major companies such as Crompton Greaves, Ballarpur Industries, Anantha ERGO Life Insurance, is already facing cases booked by CBI for cheating many banking consortiums and also in the Yes Bank fraud case.

Earlier, the Delhi High Court also dismissed Thapar's plea challenging his arrest. In the proceedings before the High Court, the ED sought adjournment as the Additional Solicitor General was not available.