VVIP chopper case: Some dodging ED summons to delay trial, says court

While allowing the Enforcement Directorate's plea for segregation of trial in the ₹3,600-crore VVIP chopper case, a local court has said that 21 of the total 60 accused are "dodging" the summons sent by ED.

In its order, the court has ruled that ED "has made more than sufficient efforts to get them (21 accused) served but they are dodging the summons or avoiding the same somehow to delay the inquiry/ trial of the present case".

As first reported by ET, a local court on Saturday allowed a plea filed by ED seeking segregation of trial. ED had recently moved an application seeking to separate the trial of the accused who have been served summons and joined investigation from those (accused) who have till date either not been served upon or have evaded the investigation.


Of these 21 accused, extradition proceedings against five accused are pending. These five include Shravan Gupta, against whom non-bailable warrants stand issued and extradition process is ongoing, and Anurag Potdar, whose extradition process is going on in another PMLA case being investigated by ED. Other co-accused whose extradition process are pending are Guido Ralph Haschke and Gerosa Carlo Valentino Ferdinando, alleged middlemen in the case.

Based on Saturday's judgement, the court also settled the legal dispute over whether ED can be permitted to file additional/supplementary complaints (chargesheet), if any, on the completion of investigation which is still ongoing or not.

That is to say that "further investigations are still pending even after a period of ten years which elapsed between filing of the first prosecution complaint (equivalent of a chargesheet) and the 12th prosecution complaint and till what time the prosecution can be allowed to go on with further investigations and whether the splitting of the trial should not be allowed due to the pendency of the further investigation by the prosecution," the order reads.

Answering the question in the affirmative, the court made it clear that further investigation cannot be scuttled. "Already ten years has elapsed between the filing of the first prosecution complaint and the twelfth supplementary prosecution complaint and yet further investigations are still continuing. No doubt, conducting further investigation in such kind of complicated matter having international ramifications is itself an intricate and herculean task, which may consume a lot of time and conducting further investigations is a valuable right of the prosecution, which cannot be curtailed by this court," the court ruled.

The order reads "it is the prerogative of the prosecuting agency to conduct further investigation to unearth the truth and the entire ramifications of the present case, which may take time due to non-receipt of valuable information from outside contracting states through LRs (letters rogatory) and otherwise", the order reads.

The 39 accused who will finally face trial include former IAF chief SP Tyagi, his three cousins, advocate Gautam Khaitan, Rajiv Saxena, Christian Michel James, Ratul Puri, Sushen Mohan Gupta, other individuals and entities.

Allowing ED's plea for trial segregation, the court said it "would be in the interest of justice...fair trial as well as speedy trial".

The court said "it must be remembered the trial/inquiry of certain accused persons, who are not yet available for trial, and the accused persons who are available for trial cannot be postponed for an indefinite period merely on the grounds that the other accused persons/entities are not immediately available for trial".