Bank fraud case: No purpose keeping me in further custody, Ratul Puri tells court

Businessman Ratul Puri, nephew of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, Friday urged a Delhi court to grant him bail, saying the probe in a money laundering case related to a bank loan fraud against him was over and there was no purpose keeping him in further custody.

The counsel appearing for Puri told Special Judge Arvind Kumar that the evidence was already collected by the probe agency and the charge sheet has ben filed.

"There is no chance that my client (Puri) can tamper with the evidence since the entire material was documentary and has already been collected by the agency," senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing for Puri, told the court.

The ED had last month filed a charge sheet against Puri and his company Moser Baer before the court. It had arrested Puri on August 20 and he is in judicial custody.

The court has posted the matter for tomorrow when the ED is likely to argue on the application.

It had on December 2 granted bail to Puri in another case related to the AgustaWestland money laundering matter, while directing him not to "tamper with evidence" or "try to contact or influence the witnesses".

Puri was arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the bank fraud case after he appeared before the central probe agency here in the chopper scam.

The latest PMLA case, filed by the ED, emerged from a CBI FIR of August 17, where Ratul Puri, his father Deepak Puri, mother Nita (Nath's sister) and others were booked in connection with a Rs 354 crore bank fraud case filed by the Central Bank of India.

The bank had claimed that the company and its directors forged and fabricated documents to induce the Central Bank of India to release funds.

The Puri family, other individuals like Sanjay Jain and Vineet Sharma were booked by the CBI for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and corruption.

Ratul Puri was booked in this case in his capacity as executive director of Moser Baer India Limited (MBIL), a firm promoted by his father Deepak Puri.

The company manufactured optical storage media like compact discs, DVDs, solid state storage devices.

Ratul Puri is facing criminal investigation by three main central probe agencies, ED, CBI and the Income Tax department.