Diaries allegedly belonged to Deepak Puri, the chairman of Moser Baer group and brother-in-law of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, which were seized during the Income Tax raids on Thursday has reportedly revealed that Moser Baer group had involved in converting Rs. 242 crore of money to dollars by raising bogus bills, reported News18.
#EXCLUSIVE – CNN-News18 accesses diaries seized during MP I-T searches. Diaries show from where money was collected. Nath’s brother-in-law’s Moser Baer group searched. ₹242 crore converted to dollars by raising bogus bills. #ElectionsWithNews18 | Details by @Ashish_Mehrishi pic.twitter.com/A1nxOpF0AI
— News18 (@CNNnews18) April 8, 2019
According to reports, the Income-Tax (IT) Department had conducted raids on more than 50 locations connected to Kamal Nath, MP Chief Minister’s OSD, Ratul Puri (Kamal Nath’s nephew), Amira Group, and Moser Bayer. The IT Department had recovered a diary during these raids, which has revealed the money trail between shell companies to convert crores of rupees into dollars using bogus bills.
The seized diary suggests that nearly Rs.242 crores were transferred to five ‘shell’ companies owned by Parasmal Lodha. A Kolkata-based company was also used for infusion of bogus capital to the tune of Rs.125 crores. Reportedly, Moser Baer group also bought shares worth Rs.250 crores through shell companies from Mauritius. The diary also reveals that Deepak Puri had allegedly collected money from various sources to get it converted into dollars through issuing bogus bills.
On Thursday, the IT officials had carried out searches also underway in Bhopal, Indore, Goa and 35 locations in Delhi. More than 300 I-T officials had conducted the searches on individuals associated with Moser Baer group. The IT officials had recovered huge cash stuffed in suitcases from a person known as Prateek Joshi from Bhopal.
The Enforcement Directorate had on Thursday questioned businessman Ratul Puri, nephew of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath in connection with the Rs 3600 crore AgustaWestland scam. On Friday, Ratul Puri was summoned for questioning a second time.
However, Ratul Puri had said that he was cooperating with the investigation and had nothing to do with defence deals. He also said that he had no business dealings with his relatives as he ran an independent business.
Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate had tracked down the money trail of kickbacks received by Christian Michel, the prime accused middleman in the AgustaWestland chopper scam, and it has led them to Moser Baer which is owned by Deepak Puri. It was reported that a part of the kickbacks was routed through Moser Baer which is owned by Deepak Puri.
Deepak Puri is the brother-in-law of senior Congress leader Kamal Nath. Puri is married to Nita Puri, sister of Senior Congress Leader and Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Mr Kamal Nath and have one son Ratul Puri. Both Nita and Ratul are part of Moser Baer.
Christian Michel, the middleman in the AgustaWestland VVIP Chopper scam, who was extradited from Dubai, has been revealing his previous links and the connection from the time when this deal was in consideration has made some stunning revelations.
Defence Middleman Christian Michel was extradited to India on 4 December from United Arab Emirates (UAE). Recently it was also unearthed that, Christian Michel’s involvement was not only restricted to AgustaWestland scam. He had also lobbied against France-based Rafale in order to enable Eurofighter, its rival, to grab the MMRCA deal. On 5th January, the Patiala House Court had extended Michel’s judicial custody till February 26.
