New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate moved a Delhi court on Wednesday seeking issuance of a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against Ratul Puri, nephew of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, in connection with a money laundering case related to the AgustaWestland chopper scam.
The move comes a day after the court dismissed his anticipatory bail plea in the now-scrapped Rs 3,600 crore VVIP chopper deal with AgustaWestland.
The agency Wednesday told Special Judge Arvind Kumar that Puri was non-cooperative and untraceable. The court is likely to take up the application for hearing tomorrow.
In its application, the agency said that Puri was directed to join the investigation on Tuesday but he failed to turn up before the agency.
The court had on August 6 dismissed Puri's anticipatory bail application, saying the investigation is at a crucial stage and the allegations against him were "grave" and "serious".
Puri, chairman of Hindustan Power projects Pvt Ltd, had on July 27 approached the court seeking anticipatory bail in the case, saying he feared arrest in the case.
He recently appeared before the ED for questioning in the case. ED has been seeking the businessman's custody to further investigate the matter. The agency's counsel had earlier contended before the trial court that Puri was an influential person and might flee the country.
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.
According to the ED, Puri's role surfaced after the deportation of another AgustaWestland case accused Rajeev Saxena on January 31 from UAE and the arrest of Sushen Mohan Gupta, an alleged defence agent.
It said the investigation showed his foreign entities received proceeds of crime directly from Interstellar Technologies Limited and he had received funds from both the chains of money laundering involved in the matter.
It said the probe has further revealed that the applicant, using the guise of shell companies in the name of others, accumulated proceeds of crime, which have been parked and later laundered to reach the desired beneficiaries including the applicant amongst other.
As per ED, the proceeds of crime have been deposited in the accounts of different companies owned by the accused and he is a key link to unearth the modus operandi adopted by other accused persons and to determine last mile connectivity of the proceeds of crime in the case.
It said various incriminating material evidence has come on record to show the complicity of Puri and the diary of Gupta and emails recovered from Saxena shows that the applicant was in receipt of proceeds of crime.
The agency also claimed that Puri has also received proceeds of crime from the channel of another alleged middleman Christian Michel James.
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