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The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) Special Court has dismissed the bail application of airlines seat allocation scam accused Deepak Talwar.
Talwar and his son Aditya Talwar are accused of money laundering and lobbying in favour of Emirates, Air Arabia and Qatar for securing undue benefits for them. A statement by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said, “Investigation under PMLA was initiated by the ED in August 2017 on the basis of FIR registered by the CBI against officials of Ministry of Civil Aviation, NACIL, Air India and unknown private persons. To avoid investigation, Deepak Talwar had fled the country. However, he was deported by immigration authority of Dubai on December 31, 2019 and subsequently arrested by ED under PMLA and at present he is in Judicial Custody.”
“The Investigation revealed that Deepak Talwar has been engaged in liasoning/lobbying with politicians, ministers, other public servants and officials of Ministry of Civil Aviation for Emirates, Air Arabia and Qatar for securing undue benefits for them. He illegally managed to secure favourable traffic rights for these airlines during 2008-2009 at the cost of National carrier, Air India,” the ED said.
According to the ED Investigation, it has been revealed that these airlines made payments to the tune of ₹ 272 crores to Deepak Talwar during 2008-2009 in lieu of securing favourable traffic rights. He created a web of his own entities and used companies of his son Aditya Talwar, in India and international offshore havens, to launder this amount.
“Part of these payments was made to a bank account in the Bank of Singapore belonging to a company Asiafield Limited, registered in the British Virgin Islands and beneficially owned by Deepak Talwar. The proceeds of crime were layered through a series of international money transfers, to partly integrate in India in Wave Hospitality Private Limited, a company beneficially owned and controlled by Deepak Talwar in the name of his son, Aditya Talwar. These Proceeds of Crime were utilised by Deepak Talwar in the construction of Hotel Holiday Inn in Aerocity, New Delhi, which has been Provisionally Attached under Section 5(1) of PMLA, 2002 on March 28, 2019,” the ED added.
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