Chopper Scam : Kamal Nath's Nephew Ratul Puri Arrested In Central Bank Fraud Case

Ratul Puri, former executive director of digital data storage company Moser Baer India Ltd. was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday in connection with a Rs. 354 crore bank fraud committed against the Central Bank of India, reports the NDTV.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed an FIR against him on August 16, including other key personnel of the company Deepak Puri, Nita Puri, Sanjay Jain and Vineet Sharma and certain unknown public servants, for defrauding the bank. As per the FIR, a case of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy was made against the accused. The provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act were also attracted.

Puri is the nephew of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and is also an accused in the Agusta Westland Chopper Scam. He was granted interim protection from arrest by the Delhi High Court in that case till Tuesday.

The company Moser Baer manufactured optical storage media devices like compact discs, DVDs, solid state storage devices. The Bank in its FIR alleged that the company used to take loans from various banks since 2009 and underwent debt restructuring numerous times. Further, when the company was unable to pay the Bank's debt, a forensic audit was conducted and the account was declared as "fraud" by the Central Bank of India on April 20.

The bank claimed that the company and its directors forged and fabricated documents to induce Central Bank of India to release funds. "The funds granted by the banks have been misused and misappropriated by MBIL and its directors for their own personal use, MBIL and its Directors and promoters have also committed fraud in respect of reporting book debts, which were also one of the primary securities of the bank", the complaint said.

A non-bailable warrant had been issued against him by a Delhi court and he was arrested on Monday night.