A Delhi court on Friday sought response from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on a bail application filed by businessman Ratul Puri, nephew of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, in a money laundering case related to a bank loan fraud.
Special judge Arvind Kumar issued notice to the ED and directed it to file a reply by November 30.
The ED had last month filed a charge sheet against Puri and company Moser Baer before Special Judge Sanjay Garg and the court is scheduled to take up the matter later in the day.
The ED had arrested Puri on August 20. He is currently in judicial custody in the case.
Puri is also in 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.
