SC stays order letting Saxena travel abroad
Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 26
The Supreme Court today stayed a Delhi High Court order allowing Rajeev Saxena, an accused-turned-approver in the AgustaWestland helicopter scam-related money laundering case, to travel abroad for medical treatment.
A Vacation Bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna stayed the June 10 High Court order after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted on behalf of the ED that certain new facts had emerged against Saxena on alleged violations of laws on income tax, money laundering and benami transactions.
As Mehta said the accused was also being investigated for benami transactions and the CBI was to lodge a fresh case against him, the Bench issued notice to him and posted the matter for further hearing after three weeks.
The Solicitor General said the CBI had also filed an application seeking to become a party in the ED’s appeal against the high court order allowing Saxena to travel abroad.
“The CBI is conducting an independent investigation in pursuance of an FIR... In which the role of present respondent (Saxena) is being investigated into. This investigation is separate and independent than the investigation being conducted by ED though there may be some overlapping of some of the areas of investigation,” the ED said in its fresh plea.
A director of two Dubai-based firms — UHY Saxena and Matrix Holdings — Saxena was one of the accused named in the chargesheet filed by the ED in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland scam who later turned an approver. The United Arab Emirates security agencies had picked him up from his Dubai residence on January 30 and extradited him to India.
