Chopper scam: Ratul Puri gets bail but remains in custody

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday granted bail to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath's nephew Ratul Puri in the money-laundering case with respect to alleged corruption in the now-tanked AgustaWestland VVIP Chopper deal.

While the businessman has been granted bail in the VVIP Chopper case, he will remain in judicial custody in connection with another money-laundering case relating to a Rs 354 crore bank fraud case against his family's company — Moser Baer. Although the Enforcement Directorate, which is probing the PMLA case, opposed Puri plea for regular bail in the Chopper scam, Special judge Arvind Kumar on Monday ordered that he be released on a personal bail bond of Rs 5 lakh and two sureties of the like amount. The ED had claimed on Tuesday that it was not the right time to release Puri on bail, as the case is at a crucial stage of investigation.

The ED had arrested Puri in connection with the Chopper scam on September 4, when he was already in judicial custody in the bank fraud-related money-laundering case, where he was arrested by ED on August 20. In fact, while Puri was being questioned in the AgustaWestland case, ED officials had claimed that he had fled from their Khan Market headquarters on the pretext of going to the restrooms. Soon after the incident, the ED also initiated an internal probe to see if any agency officials could have been involved in helping him. However, the CBI registered the Moser Baer case against him, his father Deepak Puri and mother Nita Puri (Kamal Nath's sister) and within a matter of three days, the ED had registered a corresponding money-laundering case and arrested Puri for his alleged role in it while he was a Director of the firm.

In its 6th supplementary prosecution complaint in the VVIP Chopper case, the ED had listed Puri and one Jaspreet Ahuja as accused and charged them with receiving and laundering large amounts of kickbacks in exchange for facilitating the deal.