CBI court defers order in surrender plea of Ratul Puri in AgustaWestland case

A Special CBI court on Thursday deferred its order till September 2 in the surrender plea of businessman Ratul Puri pertaining to the AgustaWestland money laundering case.

Special CBI judge Arvind Kumar had reserved his order in the plea on Wednesday.

Puri had moved the application, through Advocate Vijay Aggarwal and stated that he wants to surrender before the CBI court in the AgustaWestland money laundering case.

Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Ratul Puri had argued: "Today, there is an arrest warrant against me. I want to surrender but the ED does not want to arrest me right now. Can I be deprived of my right to move bail plea? I wish to surrender. They do not want to take me into their custody."

Special Public Prosecutor DP Singh said that ED cannot take him in their custody since Puri is already in the remand of ED in the Moser Baer bank fraud case.

"We cannot take him into custody. Law doesn't permit us. He is already in custody in another case. He has no control over his body. How can he come and say take me in custody in AgustaWestland case?" he said.

Earlier this week, a Delhi Court dismissed the petition moved by Puri seeking cancellation of a non-bailable warrant (NBW) issued against him in a money laundering case connected to Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam.

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.