NEW DELHI, May 1: A Delhi Court Friday granted bail to corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar, arrested in a money laundering case related to receiving foreign funding illegally, saying that “further custody of the accused will not serve any purpose as the charge sheet in the case has already been filed and there is no certainty when the probe will complete.
Further, the court noted that the case of Enforcement Directorate is based on documentary evidence and there is no evidence on record to suggest that the accused ever tried to influence the probe or made any attempt to tamper with the evidence.
Special judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar gave relief to Talwar on a condition that Talwar will intimate the investigating officer before leaving the NCT of Delhi and not leave the country without prior permission of the court.
The bail was granted on a personal bond of Rs 5 lakh and one surety bond of like amount.
According to the ED, Talwar was the founding member of NGO Advantage India that had received foreign contribution of Rs 90.72 crore from MBDA England, a leading European missile manufacturer, and Airbus France under CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) funding between 2012-13 to 2015-16.
“Investigation has revealed that the NGO booked ”bogus”’ expenditure under various heads to show that foreign donation was utilised for various purposes,” the agency had said.
Having secured bail in the present matter, Talwar is all set to come out of jail since he has already been granted bail in over other five cases in which he was arrested.
Talwar was deported from Dubai on January 30, 2019 and arrested by the agency after landing here. Since then he was in jail.
The court directed that accused will not do any act which will give a reasonable ground to assume that he is trying to tamper with the evidence or trying to influence, threaten or win over the witnesses examined or likely to be examined in the case.
“I am of the view that further custody of the accused will not serve any purpose. The complaint (ED’s equivalent of the charge sheet) has already been filed; the co-accused who were never arrested are on interim regular bail; case of the ED is documents based; there is no evidence on record to suggest that he ever tried to hamper the probe or tried to influence the witnesses; he has been granted bail in other related cases; there is no certainty when further investigation will end,” the court said in its 17-page order.
While seeking bail, the accused had told the court that no purpose will be served by keeping him in custody in the matter and he was the only accused arrested in the case and the probe is already over.
He further told the court that all the evidence in the case were documentary in nature and has been recovered by the probe agency.
ED’s advocates Amit Mahajan and Nitesh Rana had told the court that Talwar was accused of serious economic offence and if granted the relief, he may flee from justice.
The agency had further said that the accused was already absconding from justice prior to his arrest and he had to be brought from Dubai.
In his application, Talwar had said that there was no chance that the investigation could be hampered.
The court had earlier dismissed the interim bail application by Talwar moved on medical grounds in view of coronavirus, noting that he was lodged in Tihar central jail here where all the facilities were available.
The court had passed the order after noting that the jail authorities had not filed any report about Talwar’s health condition which suggests he risks the infection. (PTI)
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