Special Delhi court sends Ratul Puri to 5-day ED custody in AgustaWestland money laundering case

NEW DELHI: A special Delhi court on Wednesday remanded Ratul Puri to 5-day custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper money laundering case. The central probe agency had earlier sought 8-day custody of Ratul Puri in connection with its ongoing probe into the case.

Businessman Ratul Puri, who is the nephew of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case on August 20 and sent to a six-day CBI custody by the Rouse Avenue Court. 

Puri was arrested on Wednesday by the ED for his alleged involvement in Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper money laundering case.

Following his arrest, he was remanded to a 1-day judicial custody by the Delhi court, which set the hearing on CBI's plea seeking his custody for September 5. 

Puri, who is in judicial custody till September 17 in connection with a Rs 354-crore bank fraud case filed by the Central Bank of India, was produced before the court after it issued a production warrant to him, yesterday. He had earlier filed an application in the court seeking to surrender in the case. 

The case pertains to alleged irregularities in the purchase of 12 VVIP choppers from Italy-based Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland.

The deal was scrapped by the NDA government in 2014 over the alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of payment of kickbacks for securing the deal.

Puri was arrested from his Delhi residence on August 20 under PMLA. The CBI had booked Ratul Puri, his company, his father and Managing Director Deepak Puri, Directors Nita Puri (Ratul's mother and Kamal Nath's sister), Sanjay Jain and Vineet Sharma for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and corruption.