Delhi HC reserves order on bail plea of Avantha Group promoter

New Delhi, Feb 11 (IANS) The Delhi High Court on Friday reserved the order on the bail plea of Avantha Group promoter Gautam Thapar in a money laundering case linked to an alleged bank loan fraud of Rs 515 crore.A bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri has reserved the order on the bail application.The matter was listed for rejoinder arguments on behalf of Thapar, who was represented by Mukul Rohatgi, Senior Advocate, briefed by a team from Karanjawala & Co. led by Sandeep Kapur, Senior Partner and comprising Vir Sandhu, Vivek Suri, Niharika Karanjawala, Mridul Yadav, Abhimanshu Dhyani, Sahil Modi, and Kajal, Advocates.Rohatgi during rebuttal arguments submitted that the applicant is in jail for the last six months and there has been no arrest made and no charge sheet has been filed in the predicate offence by the Central Bureau of Investigation.Thapar was arrested on August 3, 2021, in connection to the allegations of misappropriation of funds granted by Yes Bank in the form of a Loan.Rohatgi submitted that there is no case of money laundering, misappropriation, cheating, or for the matter of fact it does not attract any offence under the Indian Penal Code and at the worst violation of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines could be committed from the end of the applicant.There was adequate collateral security rendered by Avantha group and it was admitted position through a prosecution complaint filed by ED, he argued.Amit Mahajan, Standing Counsel, representing Directorate of Enforcement had opposed the bail plea on the last date of hearing.The judge enquired if the Yes Bank officials are aware of the pledge of CG share, which was well addressed by Sandeep Kapur, a senior partner, Karanjawala & Co., through display of various internal correspondence of Yes bank which demonstrated that it was in knowledge of Yes Bank officials. Accordingly, the matter has been reserved for orders by the High Court.
--IANS jw/dpb

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