AgustaWestland: CBI Court sends Ratul Puri to ED custody till September 11

A Special CBI Court in New Delhi today remanded Kamal Nath’s nephew Ratul Puri to Enforcement Directorate custody in connection with the AgustaWestland case till September 11..“..keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case, I deem it fit to grant 6 days’ ED custody remand of the applicant/accused Ratul Puri. Accordingly, the applicant/accused is remanded to ED custody for 6 days. The applicant/accused be produced before the Court on 11.09.2019.”, Judge Arvind Kumar ordered..Ratul Puri was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate yesterday, a day after he was sent to judicial custody in another money laundering case..The ED today sought 14 days remand of Ratul Puri before the CBI Court..Appearing for ED, Special Public Prosecutor DP Singh argued that custodial interrogation of Puri was necessary to unearth the source and the end-use of tainted money in the case and the role of other accused persons. He further argued that Puri was required to be confronted with voluminous documents collected by the Agency..Appearing through Advocate Vijay Aggarwal, Puri argued that he had no connection with any of the companies under the ED scanner in the AgustaWestland case. It was further argued that the arrest could not be sustained because the ED had not even provided him with a copy of the ECIR..The role of Ratul Puri in the AgustaWestland case surfaced after the deportation of Rajiv Saxena and Sushen Mohan Gupta from Dubai earlier this year. As per the prosecution’s case, there is incriminating evidence against Puri, including the diary of Sushen Mohan Gupta and email recovered from Rajiv Saxena, which showed that Puri was in receipt of the proceeds of the crime in the AgustaWestland deal..The Enforcement Directorate has claimed that Puri is a key link to unearth the modus operandi adopted by all other accused persons to settle the proceeds of crime. It is alleged that Puri used the guise of shell companies to accumulate the proceeds of the crime, which were then parked and laundered to other desired beneficiaries..Last month, the CBI Court, as well as the High Court, had refused to grant anticipatory bail to Puri on the ground that the investigation in the case with respect to his role was at a crucial stage..Read the Order: