Ambience Mall owner Raj Singh Gehlot sent to ED custody till August 5

A Delhi Court on Thursday remanded Ambience mall owner Raj Singh Gehlot to ED custody till August 5 in the money laundering probe against him with regards to an alleged bank loan fraud case. The orders were passed by Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana. "In my considered opinion, a sustained custodial interrogation of the accused is desirable owing to the very intricate nature of the offence of money laundering," ASJ Rana said.

During the course of the hearing, Special Public Prosecutor and Central government standing counsel Amit Mahajan appearing for the ED told the court that the accused in connivance with bank officials defalcated the money and siphoned it off through a complex web of shell companies and his associates.

He further told the court that accused Raj Singh Gehlot entered into a criminal conspiracy with other accused persons to fraudulently siphon off the loan amount by diverting the funds for other purposes such as to settle the loan of other group companies and making Fixed Deposit as well as diversion of materials to other projects of the Ambience Group.  Opposing the submissions made by the counsel for the ED, senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa along with advocate Tanvir Ahmad Mir representing Gehlot said that he was never arrested by J&K police in the predicate offence. 

"ED on its own without any complaint has initiated a probe....their application doesn't deal with predicate offence," said Pahwa while also adding that none of the banks from which Gehlot took the loan have never complained about him. 

"... no complaint has been lodged by the banks as the banks were not aggrieved and the accused was sincere in his approach to repay the outstanding loan amount. It is submitted that in all fairness accused," the defence argued further. 

Following these submissions, the court remanded Gehlot to custody till August 5. While granting custody, the Court observed, "Considering the totality of circumstances, I am of the considered opinion that ED has set out a case for custodial interrogation of accused Raj Singh Gehlot. In view of the same, accused Raj Singh Gehlot is remanded to ED custody till 05.08.2021." 

Gehlot was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in an alleged bank loan fraud case on Thursday. According to ED, the case against Gehlot was registered in 2019 for money laundering in the construction of five-star Leela Ambience Convention Hotel situated near Yamuna Sports Complex in Delhi. The probe revealed that Gehlot and his associates siphoned off a huge portion of the money sanctioned by a consortium of banks for the hotel project through a maze of companies controlled by them.