A Delhi court on Tuesday sent Ratul Puri, nephew of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, to Tihar jail for 14 days in the Enforcement Directorate’s money laundering case related to a bank loan fraud.
Special judge Sanjay Garg sent Puri to judicial custody after the probe agency said he is not required for further custodial interrogation. ED arrested Puri on August 19 in relation to a Rs. 354 crore bank fraud case linked to his now-defunct company Moser Baer.
A Moser Baer official said the company “will support the agencies in true spirit in accordance to governance principles that were pillar to its success story.”
Meanwhile, another trial court hearing a separate money laundering case related to the aborted AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal directed Tihar jail authorities to produce Puri before it on Wednesday when special judge Arvind Kumar is likely to decide on Puri’s application seeking to surrender in the chopper scam.
When Puri offered to surrender in the AgustaWestland case last month, ED said this wasn’t possible as he was already in their custody in another case.
The latest money laundering case, in which Puri has been sent to judicial custody, emerged from a Central Bureau of Investigation FIR, registered on August 17, in which Puri, his father Deepak Puri, mother Nita (Kamal Nath’s sister) and others have been named as accused for cheating the Central Bank of India.
Puri’s company Hindustan Power Projects Power Ltd had earlier denied his role in AgustaWestland VVIP Chopper scam.
The case pertains to alleged irregularities in the purchase of 12 VVIP choppers from Italy-based Finmeccanica’s British subsidiary, AgustaWestland. The ₹3,600-crore deal was scrapped in 2014 over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of payment of kickbacks for securing the deal.
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