Aviation scam: Court extends custody of Talwar's aide

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Wednesday extended by nine days the custodial interrogation of a close aide of corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar by the ED in a money-laundering case related to negotiations that allegedly favoured foreign private airlines and caused loss to state-owned Air India.

The ED had taken Yasmin Kapoor into custody on October 3 after she was produced before the court. She was lodged in Tihar jail in another case being probed by the CBI. Kapoor was produced before Special Judge Anuradha Shukla Bhardwaj on expiry of her 6-day ED custody and advocate Nitesh Rana, ED's special public prosecutor, told the court that she was required to be quizzed further to unearth a larger conspiracy. The court had last month cancelled the anticipatory bail granted to Kapoor in the money-laundering case after Rana submitted that she was misusing the bail.

Kapoor was granted anticipatory bail by the court on March 22, while Talwar was in judicial custody in the case lodged by the ED. There were reasons to believe that the tainted money, received from the foreign airlines, was used for the acquisition of Kapoor's residential property.