London, Sep 23 Criminal lawyer Vijay Aggarwal, arrested in London last month on charges of sexual assault, was on Wednesday denied bail by a UK court.
Aggarwal, who has represented fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi in fraud and money laundering proceedings, appeared before Justice John Milne at Southwark Crown Court charged with sexual assault for a bail hearing. The judge ruled against it on the grounds that he posed a flight risk and could fail to appear for his trial scheduled for March 2027.
His assistant, Manpreet Kaur, charged with two counts of intentionally encouraging or assisting sexual assault, was to appear via videolink but a prison administrative error led to a failure to attend. This resulted in the formal arraignment of both accused to be delayed to a later date.
At Wednesday’s hearing, the Crown Prosecution Service strongly opposed bail being granted to Aggarwal due to the serious nature of the allegations.
Aggarwal’s barrister, Sasha Wass, described her client as a man of “good character” who has been held at Wandsworth prison in south-west London for over a month now.
Aggarwal, 57, a prominent advocate, and Kaur, 41, were arrested at a property on Brick Street in the posh Mayfair area of London on August 11 over alleged sexual offences on May 26 and August 9.
While Aggarwal has been charged with “four counts of sexual assault”, Kaur was charged with “two counts of intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of an either way offence, namely sexual assault”.
“Two women who reported the sexual assaults continue to be supported by specialist officers,” the Metropolitan Police said at the time of the arrests last month.
The 29 Brick Street property is listed online as a “Mayfair Residence Townhouse”, made up of multi-storey luxury apartments that are available for rent.
(PTI News)
