Aviation scam: Delhi court dismisses corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar's anticipatory bail plea, CBI takes him into custody

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday took corporate lobbyist and fugitive offender Deepak Talwar into custody in connection with an aviation scam being investigated by the agency.

The CBI arrested Talwar inside the courtroom after Special Judge Anil Kumar Sisodia dismissed his anticipatory bail plea.

A Delhi Court dismisses Corporate Lobbyist Deepak Talwar's anticipatory bail application in the CBI case against him. CBI has also sought 14 day custody of Talwar (file pic) pic.twitter.com/UmuJC46dLB

— ANI (@ANI) July 26, 2019

The agency has sought his 14-day custodial interrogation on which the court is likely to pass order later in the day.

Talwar, currently in judicial custody in a money laundering case related to the scam, has allegedly played a role in some aviation deals during the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA) regime at the Centre for which he was under the scanner.

Talwar was booked by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in criminal cases of corruption, while the Income Tax Department has charged him with tax evasion.

On 23 July, the Supreme Court had directed the registry to provide the list of matters pertaining to Antigua-based Aditya Talwar and his father Deepak before the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi.

The top court had earlier stayed a Delhi High Court order allowing Aditya to appear through his counsel before a trial court in a money laundering case related to allegedly influencing government decisions to favour foreign airlines, causing losses to Air India.

“There is something gravely wrong in this,” a bench of CJI and Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose said during the brief hearing.

“Office to ascertain the particulars of all the cases which would be connected to the matters listed before this Bench today and put up the list of all such cases before the CJI on the administrative side for passing of appropriate orders,” it said in the order.

Aditya, who is yet to join the probe, has been accused by the ED of allegedly receiving Rs 272 crore in kickbacks through his firms—Asiafield and Gilt Asset Management—in the case involving his father.