A Delhi court has fixed March 25 for considering the  plea of Rajeev Saxena, an accused in the Agustawestland  chopper scam to turn approver.

This followed the Enforcement Directorate  informing the court that they are supporting his plea to turn approver. “Him becoming an approver will be very useful for us. That is why we are supporting his plea”, the ED informed the court.

In late February Saxena had moved  the court seeking to become an approver in the case. Special Judge Arvind Kumar had sought the Enforcement Directorate’s response on Saxena’s plea to become an approver.

Saxena had told the court that he doing so “out of free will” and “without any coercion” and prayed that he “will make a full disclosure subject to the grant of pardon”.“The applicant humbly prays, without prejudice to his defence, that he may be granted pardon approver under Section 306 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 subject to the condition that he will make a full disclosure, to the extent, the facts are within his knowledge of which he will make a true and proper disclosure subject to the grant of pardon,” his application said.

Saxena said that he has cooperated with the investigation throughout and has made known entire facts regarding the case.“The applicant cooperated with the investigation during the entire period of remand before the Directorate of Enforcement.“The applicant has made a clean breast of the entire facts as known to the applicant with regard to the complaint pertaining to the AgustaWestland helicopters filed by the Directorate of Enforcement to the extent known to him,” the application said.

Saxena was earlier granted bail by the court on medical grounds after perusing reports submitted by AIIMS.The court had said that it was clear from the medical record submitted by AIIMS that  he was suffering from a number of serious ailments including blood cancer and needs constant medical checkups.

Saxena, who is in custody since January 31 after his deportation from Dubai, said in his bail plea that when all the other accused in the case, including Gautam Khaitan, Ritu Khaitan and SP Tyagi were out on bail, there could be “no justification” to deny him the same relief.

Saxena, a director of two Dubai-based firms – UHY Saxena and Matrix Holdings – is one of the accused named in the charge sheet filed by ED in the AgustaWestland case.

Christian Michel, former AgustaWestland and Finmeccanica directors Giuseppe Orsi and Bruno Spagnolini, former Air Force chief SP Tyagi and Saxena’s wife Shivani have also been named by the agency in the chargesheet.

–India Legal Bureau