VVIP chopper case: Rajiv Saxena’s villa, bank A/CS attached

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth $50.90 million (about Rs 385.44 crore), including a villa in Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah and five Swiss bank accounts, linked to Agustawestland case suspect Rajiv Saxena.

The villa is worth 20 million dirhams and the money attached in five accounts is worth $45.5 million, the agency said in a press statement on Friday.

An accused-turned-approver in the ₹3,600-crore Agustawestland helicopter deal, Saxena was deported to India from the UAE on January 31, 2019, and arrested under money laundering act. ED has claimed that Saxena, a Dubaibased businessman, is a hawala operator. ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) are probing allegations of corruption and money laundering in the 2007 contract for the purchase of 12 luxury VVIP helicopters for use by top leaders. The deal was cancelled on January 1, 2014 over the allegations of wrongdoing.

ED has tried to get Saxena’s approver status revoked, claiming that he misled investigators and withheld crucial information. However, a Delhi court has refused to do so — a decision has been challenged by the agency in the high court.

“Rajiv Saxena manages the proceeds of crime and tainted funds of many high profile and High Net worth Individuals (HNIS). He has admitted to laundering the proceeds of crime not only of Agustawestland deal but also various other defence deals. The proceeds of crime have also been transferred to the personal accounts of Rajiv Saxena and his wife Shivani Saxena (also an accused in Agustawestland case),” the ED press release said.

Saxena’s lawyer, RK Handoo, said, “What’s happening is very wrong and is harassment of Rajiv Saxena by the agency. He was made an approver and then now agency is making these claims.”

ED said Saxena is a “hawala operator who runs accommodation entry business in Dubai through... Matrix group companies, and has laundered proceeds of crime in Agustawestland chopper scam and Moser Baer bank fraud case”. The Moser Baer case is linked to businessman Ratul Puri, the nephew of former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, and his father Deepak Puri.

In a rare instance, the Bombay high court (HC) recently ordered perjury proceedings against head constable Deepak Trivedi, who, as an eyewitness, failed to identify the men who murdered builder Swapnil Shirke alias Pintu, 30, on the premises of the sessions court in Nagpur in June 2002.

Trivedi was the lone policeman escorting Shirke, an accused in a murder case, to the court. Shirke was chased on the premises and stabbed multiple times by 10 men. Trivedi, too, was injured and hospitalised in the attack.

In 2017, a division bench of the Supreme Court had dismissed an appeal by the accused and upheld the life sentence awarded to Congress corporator Vijay Krishnarao Mate and six others — Raju Bhadre, Kiran Umrao Kaithe, Dinesh Gaiki, Umesh Dahake, Ritesh Gawande, and Kamlesh Nimbarte — by the Bombay HC. Four others arrested in the case were acquitted for want of evidence. In 2015, the Bombay HC, while sentencing the accused to life imprisonment, had initiated perjury proceedings against Trivedi for failing to identify the accused in the case, claiming the incident had happened 10 years ago. The HC had issued show-cause notice to the constable asking him why