Kamal Nath’s nephew Ratul Puri arrested in alleged bank fraud case

Ratul Puri — the nephew of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath — has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with an alleged Rs 354 crore bank fraud case. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) initiated an investigation in this case on Monday. Puri was arrested under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)

According to News18, Kamal Nath said, “I have no connection with the business they are doing. But it appears to be purely a mala fide action. I believe and have full faith that the court will take a corrective stand in this case,”

On 20th April 2019, the Central Bank of India declared the company account as ‘fraud’ after a forensic audit. The bank in its complaint had alleged that the company had been taking loans from banks since 2009 and went for debt restructuring a number of times.

On July 26, the 47-year-old businessman allegedly slipped away after excusing himself in the middle of his interrogation by the Enforcement Directorate. A day later, Puri requested protection from arrest, which he got after a week of court hearings. His anticipatory bail was rejected on August 6 by the same court, which also put out a non-bailable warrant against him.

According to CBI, on August 16, a complaint was received from the Central Bank of India for cheating the bank to the tune of Rs 354.51 crore.

The lawyer said that the ED has e-mailed Puri on Monday at 11:55 am and called him at 1 pm. “This is unfair. How can a person join the investigation at such short notice,” he told the court.

According to the FIR, a case of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy has been lodged against Moser Baer India Limited, then executive director Ratul Puri, managing director Deepak Puri, full-time director Nita Puri, director Sanjay Jain, director Vineet Sharma, unknown public servants, and unknown persons.

As per the CBI FIR, “MBIL has committed fraud and cheated the complainant bank, thereby making a wrongful gain to themselves and a wrongful loss to the lender bank which is a custodian of public money,”