New Delhi: A special court on Wednesday extended businessman Ratul Puri’s remand to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for five days in the AgustaWestland money laundering case.
Special public prosecutor DP Singh, representing the ED, told judge Arvind Kumar that Puri was evasive throughout the questioning and sought eight days custody. He also submitted before the court a list of the people, who are to be confronted with Puri.
Singh produced documents before the court, which were recovered from the residence of Puri’s close aide Niyamat Bakshi, showing that evidence was destructed.
Contending Singh’s arguments, Puri’s advocate Vijay Aggarwal said there was no point in extending Puri’s remand if he was not cooperative with the ED.
On September 5, the court had sent him to six days remand which expires 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.