New Delhi, Feb 10 (IANS): The Delhi High Court on Thursday reserved its order on bail plea of Raj Singh Gehlot, Chairman of the Ambience Group of Companies, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on charges of money laundering in connection with an alleged multi-crore bank loan fraud case in July last year.

After hearing intensive arguments on the point of validity of twin conditions under section 45, PMLA vis a vis right of an accused enshrined under Articles 14, 19, and 21 and other legal issues, Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri reserved the bail application filed on behalf of Gehlot for passing orders.

The case relates to certain loans granted by a consortium of banks for the construction of the Ambience Hotel at Shahdara, Delhi. The case was argued at length by Senior Advocate Dr A.M. Singhvi, appearing for Gehlot. Arguments were addressed on merits as well as other legal issues involving due process, procedure established by law, and other anomalies under the PMLA.

Singhvi was briefed by Sandeep Kapur, Senior Partner - Karanjawala and Co and his team comprises Vir Sandhu, Niharika Karanjawala, Mridul Yadav, Aashneet Singh and Sahil Modi. Advocate Zoheb Hussain appeared on behalf of the Directorate of Enforcement.

The CBI had also registered a case against a private person, Gehlot, Ambience Ltd and Ambience Developers and Infrastructure Pvt Ltd and unknown officials of HUDA, and unknown private persons on the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.