Ratul Puri's judicial custody extended till Oct 17 by Delhi court in bank fraud case

New Delhi: A Delhi court Thursday extended the judicial custody of Ratul Puri, nephew of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, till October 17 in a money laundering case related to a bank loan fraud.

Special Judge Anuradha Shukla Bhardwaj passed the order after Puri was produced before it and the Enforcement Directorate said that if released, he may tamper with the evidence. ED had arrested Puri on August 20. The court had on September 3 sent him to judicial custody in the case after his 14-day custodial interrogation ended. Puri is also in the judicial custody in another money laundering case related to AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam.

In the chopper scam, the Delhi High Court had earlier dismissed Puri's anticipatory bail plea, saying his custodial interrogation was "required for an effective investigation". Puri was arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the bank fraud case after he appeared before the central probe agency here in the chopper scam. The latest PMLA case, filed by the ED, emerged from a CBI FIR of August 17, where Ratul Puri, his father Deepak Puri, mother Nita (Nath's sister) and others were booked in connection with a Rs 354 crore bank fraud case filed by the Central Bank of India.

The bank had claimed that the company and its directors forged and fabricated documents to induce the Central Bank of India to release funds. The Puri family, other individuals like Sanjay Jain and Vineet Sharma were booked by the CBI for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and corruption. Ratul Puri was booked in this case in his capacity as executive director of Moser Baer India Limited (MBIL), a firm promoted by his father Deepak Puri. The company manufactured optical storage media like compact discs, DVDs, solid-state storage devices. Ratul Puri is facing criminal investigation by three main central probe agencies, ED, CBI and the Income Tax department.