Parted ways with MGF and Shravan Gupta years back: Emaar India
New Delhi, June 25 (IANS) A day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided seven premises linked with MGF Chairman Shravan Gupta in connection with its probe into Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case, Emaar India said that it has parted ways with MGF a few years back and Gupta has no role with it.
It also said that it will fully cooperate with any government agency as a responsible corporate.
An Emaar India spokesperson in a statement said: “Emaar and MGF had parted ways few years back and Gupta has no role in Emaar India and he is also no longer on the Board of the company.”
Emaar India is directly under the control of its parent Emaar Properties PJSC, Dubai and is fully in compliance with rules and regulations of the law of the land, the spokesperson said.
“As a responsible corporate, Emaar India will cooperate with any government agency.”
The statement came a day after ED raided seven premises linked to Gupta. The ED conducted searches at seven location in Delhi and Haryana’s Gurugram at locations linked to Gupta.
Gupta was summoned and questioned by the ED in 2016 after his named cropped up during investigation.According to ED officials, it was found that alleged middleman Guido Haschke was an independent director of Gupta’s firm between September and December 2009.
In its charge sheet in 2015, the ED claimed that it detected flow of alleged kickbacks sent from foreign countries to companies of the accused named in the case — advocate Gautam Khaitan and cousins of the former IAF chief S.P. Tyagi.
The ED also alleged that a part of the kickbacks allegedly paid to influential people and politicians was parked in a company related to Gupta, and that the money was meant to swing the contract in favour of AgustaWestland. The kickbacks were then allegedly routed through Rajiv Gupta-owned Mauritius-based company Interstellar Technologies. Rajiv Gupta later turned approver in the case.
The case pertains to the buying of 12 AgustaWestland helicopters from Italian defence manufacturing giant Finmeccanica at an estimated cost of Rs 3,600 crore for ferrying VVIPs. In the deal, bribes were allegedly paid to middlemen and others. The purchase was cleared in 2010 by the then UPA government.
–IANS
aks/vd
