New Delhi: The Income Tax department has attached properties and funds belonging to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath's nephew Ratul Puri and his father Deepak Puri in connection with an ongoing probe into the alleged benami properties owned by the two, sources here said on Sunday.
The Benami Prohibition Unit of the I-T Department attached an immovable property at APJ Abdul Kalam Road here in the Capital. The agency has also attached Foreign Direct Investment of the father and son worth US$ 40 million, sources in the know said. The recent I-T attachment of the Puris' property has been made under the Benami Property Transactions Act.
Ratul's father Deepak Puri is the founder, owner and Chief Managing Director of disk storage manufacturer Moser Baer.
In fact, the attached property at APJ Abdul Kalam Road was registered to one Ramaa Advisors Pvt Ltd, a company that manages websites for other firms and designs multimedia presentations for clients.
However, one of the directors in the company, Udaya Kumar Prarath, is a director in at least three Moser Baer affiliate companies, namely Moser Baer Infrastructure and Developers Limited, Moser Baer Distribution Limited and Moser Baer Electronics Limited.
So far, the I-T department has attached around US$ 95 million of funds and another bungalow at Aurangazeb Road in Delhi. Ratul Puri has come under the scanner of multiple law enforcement agencies in the recent past, with the Enforcement Directorate looking into his alleged role in the now-scrapped Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal. A non-bailable warrant for Ratul's arrest was recently issued by a special court in Delhi.