The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today arrested Ratul Puri, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Kamal Nath’s nephew, from Delhi in connection with a Rs 354 crore bank fraud case.
According to the reports, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had on Monday booked Puri, the then former executive director of Moser Baer, Deepak Puri, Nita Puri and others for defrauding the Central Bank of India to the tune of Rs 354.51 crore.
Moser Baer has released a statement and called the arrest of Puri ‘unfortunate’. “Moser Baer had operated in accordance with all legal compliances and this case now, when Moser Baer is in National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), is motivated,” the company said in its statement.
According to the FIR, a case of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy has been lodged against Moser Baer India Limited, then executive director Ratul Puri, managing director Deepak Puri, full-time director Nita Puri, director Sanjay Jain, director Vineet Sharma, unknown public servants and unknown persons.
Ratul Puri had resigned from the post of executive director in 2012, while his parents continue to be on the board, the bank said in a statement.
Moser Baer was involved in the manufacture of optical storage media like compact discs, DVDs, solid-state storage devices.
The company had taken loans from various banks since 2009 and went for debt restructuring a number of times, the bank has alleged in the complaint which is now part of the CBI FIR. When the company was unable to pay the debt, a forensic audit was done and the account was declared as “fraud” by the Central Bank of India on April 20, 2019, it has alleged.
“The MBIL has committed fraud and cheated the complainant bank thereby making a wrongful gain to themselves and a wrongful loss to the lender bank which is a custodian of public money,” the complaint to the CBI said.
On Monday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also began to tighten the noose for Ratul Puri after the agency told a court in New Delhi that Ratul Puri was evading probe in the AgustaWestland chopper scam-related money laundering case.
The VVIP chopper case pertains to alleged irregularities in the purchase of 12 VVIP choppers from Italy-based Finmeccanica’s British subsidiary, AgustaWestland. According to the ED, the proceeds of the crime have been deposited in the accounts of different companies owned by Ratul Puri.
Note: We have updated the story with the latest information.
