Ratul Puri sent to judicial custody till Oct 1 in AgustaWestland case

A Special CBI Court in New Delhi yesterday sent Kamal Nath’s nephew Ratul Puri to judicial custody till October 1 in connection with the AgustaWestland case..Ratul Puri was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) earlier this month. He was then remanded to ED custody which was extended from time to time..The ED yesterday sought that Puri be sent to judicial custody..While allowing the application for judicial custody, the Court allowed Puri to carry medicines along with him, subject to the opinion of the jail doctor..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..ED was represented by Speical Public Prosecutors DP Singh and NK Matta with Advocates Manu Mishra, Yogeshwar Sharma, and Gaurav Jain..Ratul Puri was represented by Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra with Advocates Vijay Aggarwal, Mudit Jain, Vaurj Chopra, Ayush Jindal, Gurhot Singh, Shivam Gupta..Read the Order: