Airhostess gets bail after DRI fails to file complaint

NEW DELHI: A city court on Friday gave bail to airhostess Devshi Kulshreshtha who was arrested on money laundering charges for carrying foreign currency amounting to Rs 3.24 crore. Her counsel argued that she was “simply trapped” and “befooled” by the co-accused into giving her consent for carrying a parcel for him without telling what the contents were.
The court noted that Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had not been able to file complaints within 60 days and for this reason also the accused cannot be kept in custody for an indefinite period.
“No purpose would be served by keeping the accused for indefinite period...accused is admitted on bail on furnishing a bail bond in the sum of Rs 1 lakh with one surety,” chief metropolitan magistrate Deepak Sherawat held.
Kulshreshtha’s lawyer, Manoj Taneja, argued that had she known about the contents of the parcel, she would have in no manner agreed to carry it at the request of the co-accused, who was known to her for a short time.
“It is only in good faith and due to sheer ignorance that the applicant accepted to carry the parcel to Hong Kong, as was given by the co-accused, Amit Malhotra, while she was going on January 8, 2018 as a crew member in the Jet Airways flight,” asserted Taneja.
Earlier, Taneja had argued that during her interrogation by DRI, his client had “specifically” informed about the involvement of another crew member who was working at the behest of the “main accused” (Malhotra) “in carrying foreign currency for him”. However, no action was taken against the other crew member.
The allegations of Kulshreshtha were termed “serious in nature” by the court then. Following her arrest, DRI arrested Malhotra (40), the alleged mastermind of the international money laundering syndicate. He had been allegedly been sending large amounts of foreign currency wrapped in aluminium foil in her baggage for the past several months.