Ratul Puri spent $4.5m from Rajiv Saxena credit card: ED

NEW DELHI: In a chargesheet filed against Ratul Puri, nephew of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, the Enforcement Directorate has accused him of using a credit card allegedly issued to AgustaWestland chopper scam accused

Rajiv Saxena

in Dubai and spending over $4.5 million on lavish spending. Saxena had turned approver but the agency sought to cancel the status for his non-cooperation.


The card was allegedly used for holidays abroad, money spent at night clubs and travel by private jets during overseas trips. Puri, who was arrested by the agency on August 18, is currently in judicial custody with courts rejecting his bail applications. He is accused of laundering around Rs 8,000 crore loans which his

Moser Baer

group of companies received from a consortium of public sector banks in India.

The money is believed to have moved to overseas entities where Puri had acquired undisclosed personal properties. "Loans of more than Rs 7,979 crore taken from various banks have been misused and misappropriated by Moser Baer India Ltd and its promoters and directors for their own use and have further been transferred in companies of Hindustan Power Group of Ratul Puri," the ED said in its chargesheet filed on Thursday.

The chargesheet claimed Puri transferred funds accessed as bank loans to various subsidiaries of Moser Baer across the world in the guise of further loans and investments. Puri, with the help of hawala operators and professionals, created corporate structures in various jurisdictions and invested in assets like factories and bank deposits to fund his expensive lifestyle, the agency said. The ED probe further found that over a period of time, the receivables were written off and investments were shown to be diminished and written off. "No efforts were made to recover the amounts. Most of the subsidiaries have outstanding financial liability towards banks totalling Rs 7979.30 crore," it said.