In a shocking revelation, Kavita Puri, the wife of money-laundering scam accused Ratul Puri, has accused her husband of forcing her to make a false statement to the ED. Ratul Puri is currently an accused in multi-crore AgustaWestland scam and various other money laundering cases and in custody for the last 80 days.
According to a report by Times of India, Kavita, who is now estranged from Ratul, recorded a statement with the ED stating that her husband forced her to write a letter in July claiming that she could not join the probe as she had to tend to her bedridden father-in-law Deepak Puri at their residence at Aurangzeb Road.
Kavita had reportedly added that Ratul Puri had warned her not to go to the ED or answer calls from any ‘unknown’ numbers. She accused Puri of taking away her iPad and refusing to return it, saying it was lost during income-tax raids. Kavita’s iPad is being sought by the ED as a piece of evidence.
Kavita further said to the probe agency that she has been separated from Puri for the last four years and has been staying at Hyatt Regency hotel.
The ED has now included Kavita’s statement as part of a supplementary charge-sheet that was filed before a special court in Delhi on November 2. The ED has argued that despite being in judicial custody, Puri has been intimidating witnesses and working on the destruction of evidence through one of his girlfriends, who is also being investigated by the agency.
Times of India has reported that many close friends and associates of Puri have now recorded statements against him claiming that they have been warned by Puri not to acknowledge ‘entries’ made against their names in a diary recovered from Puri’s accountant.
The ED also submitted at the court that an important witness in the case, Puri’s accountant KK Khosla, has gone missing. Khosla kept a record of Puri’s “cash transactions” and has been untraceable for several months.
The ED had arrested Ratul Puri on August 20, who was sent into judicial custody by the court till October 17. Apart from ED, the CBI and Income Tax department are also probing Puri and his company Moser Baer.
In a separate money laundering case, the Enforcement Directorate had filed a charge sheet against MP CM Kamal Nath’s nephew Ratul Puri and his company Moser Baer last month for alleged money laundering and bank fraud. As per reports, the ED charge sheet states that Puri and his company laundered money and misappropriated funds worth Rs 8000 crores.
Apart from Ratul Puri, his father Deepak Puri and his mother Nita Puri, who is Kamal Nath’s sister, have also been booked by the ED in a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case in connection with a bank fraud case filed by the Central Bank of India. The ED case was based on the August 17 CBI FIR against Puri.
