AgustaWestland case: ED seeks three days custody of Ratul Puri

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday sought businessman Ratul Puri's custody for three more days from a Delhi court in connection with Rs 3, 600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case, asserting that it needs to confront him with "incriminating documents" recovered during the recent searches.

On September 11, the court had sent Puri to ED custody for five days, which is slated to end today.

Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) DP Singh and advocate Naveen Kumar Matta, representing the agency, told Special judge Arvind Kumar that during the search conducted at Ratul Puri's office from September 7 to 14, they recovered some incriminating documents, which has given them a crucial lead in the case.

Seeking his custody, the counsel said that certain people and documents linked to the case need to be confronted with him.

Advocate Vijay Aggarwal, appearing on the behalf of the accused, strongly opposed the submissions and said that his client has already spent many days in the ED custody.

Puri was allowed to meet his mother, Neeta Puri, in the court today.

Puri, the nephew of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, had earlier filed an application in the court seeking its permission 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.