New Delhi: The Enforcement Dir-ectorate on Wednes-day attached bank deposits of Rs 7.49 lakh allegedly belonging to Gautam Khaitan’s wife as part of its money laundering probe into the VVIP copter deal scam.

The Central probe agency said it has issued a provisional order for attachment of the funds, kept in an ICICI Bank branch in Connaught Place, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Gautam Khaitan, a Delhi-based lawyer and businessman, was arrested in this case by the ED in January after it filed a fresh criminal case against him and his wife, Ritu, on the basis of an income-tax department complaint und-er the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015.

Gautam is also a prime accused in the Rs 3,600-crore Agusta Westland VVIP copter deal corruption case along with his wife.

The agency said in a statement that Ritu held “beneficial interest and ownership in foreign assets, company and account and she failed to disclose the same in her return of income filed before the I-T authorities”.

“She has been found laundering money in various other personal and bank accounts of companies in Singapore and Mauritius in which she has beneficial interest,” the ED said.