Sushen Gupta tried his best, couldn’t destroy evidence: ED to Delhi court

New Delhi: AgustaWestland case accused Sushen Mohan Gupta tried his best, but could not destroy the evidence, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) told a special CBI court on Monday.

Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar was hearing a bail plea filed by Gupta on April 6 in connection with the money-laundering case against him. The court reserved the order on the bail application for April 20.

During the course of the hearing, ED’s Special Public Prosecutors DP Singh and Naveen Kumar Matta accused Gupta of 'influencing' Rajiv Saxena after the latter was allowed to turn “approver” in the case by the court. “When one of our witnesses wanted to be an approver, Gupta went to Dubai to desist him. He had started calling him when there was a buzz on diaries,” added the counsels.

The ED had previously said that two diaries in the form of a pen drive were recovered from the possession of Saxena, which allegedly belonged to Gupta.

Opposing Gupta's bail plea today, ED also contended that the statement given by Gupta in 2016 that he did not have any knowledge of Interstellar Technologies, a Mauritius-based company through which money was laundered, was "wrong".

“But later during the investigation, it came to light that Gupta was the one who gave the instructions for the transfer of funds.”

Gupta’s counsels, Advocate Siddharath Aggarwal and PV Kapoor, however, argued that he had joined the investigation as and when summoned.

“There is no scope of apprehension regarding his availability,” they said.

Gupta was arrested on March 26 and is currently lodged in Tihar jail. The court, on April 8, had sent Gupta to judicial custody till April 20.

In his bail plea, Gupta submitted that he fully cooperated with investigation agencies and had complied with all directions given by them, adding that he has neither been accused of evading the law nor has he interfered with the investigation in any manner.