Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed ‘Prosecution Complaint’ under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against the then Executive Editor of Moser Baer India Ltd Ratul Puri and others in a bank fraud case, an official release said here on Friday. The move comes after Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed an FIR in this regard.
The CBI had registered the case on the basis of complaint filed by Central Bank of India for offences of criminal conspiracy and forgery for the purpose of cheating, using forged documents as genuine and criminal misconduct by the accused company Moser Baer India Ltd and its Directors in conspiracy amongst themselves and with unknown public servants and unknown private persons, whereby the said bank was cheated to the tune of Rs 354.51 crore.
“The loans to the tune of Rs 7979.30 crore was taken from various banks have been misused and misappropriated by Moser Baer India Ltd and its directors and promoters for their own use and have further been transferred to the companies of Hindustan Power Group owned by Ratul Puri”, the probing agency said in the statement. In order to avail the loan and for corporate debt restructuring, a fabricated document was submitted to the bank showing infusion of ‘Promoters’ contribution’ which itself had come from suspicious sources, the agency added.
ED also said that the corporate guarantees were given to lure the banks to disburse loans to subsidiaries beyond the net worth of Moser Baer India Ltd over a period of time, the receivables were written off and investments were shown to be diminished and written off and no efforts were made to recover the amounts.
Investigation conducted so far, has also revealed that accused Ratul Puri had transferred funds consisting of bank loans to various subsidiaries of Moser Baer India Ltd across the world in the guise of giving loans and investments.
Further, he, with the help of various ‘Hawala Operators’ and professionals, created corporate structures in various jurisdictions and invested in asset creation like buying factory, movable assets and also for funding a lavish lifestyle for which a credit card was got issued from the Dubai based Hawala operator Rajiv Saxena who is already deported to India in Augusta Westland scam.
The total amount spent on the credit card was US Dollar 4.5 million which has been used for lavish stays on holidays, travelling in private jets and night clubs.
Ratul Puri was arrested on August 19 and remanded to judicial custody and the further investigation in this case is under progress, the ED said. (UNI)
