By Anand Singh
New Delhi, Nov 4 (IANS) Ratul Puri, the nephew of senior Congress leader Kamal Nath, had been dealing with Dubai-based chartered accountant Rajiv Saxena through his companies Moser Baer Engineering and Construction Ltd (MBECL), West Asia Trading, and Enertec Trading FZE, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) claimed in its supplementary chargesheet in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case.
The findings have been mentioned in the statement of a prosecution witness, who earlier worked with Saxena’s Dubai-based company UHY Saxena and was later promoted as Finance Manager.
The copy of the statement, which is part of 12,421-page chargesheet filed in a Delhi court last month, has been accessed by IANS.
The CBI said, Shahnawaz Khan, a Hyderabad-based resident who shifted to Dubai in 2004 and started working with Saxena’s company UHY Saxena as a clerk.
In his statement to CBI, Khan claimed that Saxena was owner of UHY Saxena and other companies of the group included Matrix Holdings Ltd, Matrix Group Ltd, Midas Metal International LLC, Midas Tech LLC, Matrix Group DMCC, Pacific International FZC, Pacific International FZE, Metolix Ltd, Eurotrade Ltd, Mercon Trading LLC and Mercon Commodities DMCC.
Khan said that he worked closely with Mushataq Ali Shaikh, who was Finance Director of Saxena’s company, and was authorised to operate the bank accounts of the group compnaies of UHY Saxena including Midas Metal International LLC.
In his statement to CBI, Khan stated: “During the year 2011, Midas Metal International LLC had entered into an agreement with MBECL for sale and purchase of solar panels, modules invertors for their solar power project.”
He further revealed that Midas Metal International LLC used to purchase these items from West Asia Trading (WAT) FZE and Enertec Trading FZE and thereafter seling these items to MBECL.
“MBECL, WAT and Enertec are owned by Ratul Puri having its office in Delhi’s Okhla area,” Khan told CBI.
Khan also said that after the execution of the agreement with MBECL, he alongwith Shaikh visited the office of Ratul Puri in Delhi in 2011 to sort out the modalities including raising of invoice over MBECL by Midas Metal International LLC while simultaneously raising of invoices of WAT and Enertec Trading FZE and Midas Metal International LLC.
Khan in his reply to CBI also stated that Naveen Batra of MBECL used to liaise with him for remittance of funds to Midas Metal International LLC by MBECL and for further payment of funds to Ratul Puri’s WAT and Enertec Trading FZE from the accounts of Midas Metal International LLC.
Khan further revealed that he used to apprise Saxena about the receipt of funds and intructions of Batra for making payment to WAT and Enertec Trading FZE.
IANS tried to contact the advocate of Ratul Puri over the allegations through messages. By the time of filing this report no response was received.
Ratul Puri, who is facing probe in different bank fraud cases, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on August 18 last year in a bank fraud case. He was granted bail by a Delhi court on December 2 last year.
The ED in its chargesheet alleged that Ratul Puri had “transferred” funds consisting of bank loans to various subsidiaries of Moser Baer India Ltd (MBIL) across the world in the guise of giving loans and investments.
The ED also alleged that Ratul Puri with the help of various hawala operators and professionals created “corporate structures” in various jurisdictions and invested in asset creation like buying a factory, movable assets and also for funding a lavish lifestyle for which a credit card was got issued from Saxena.
“The total amount spent through the credit card is $4.5 million which has been used for lavish stays on holidays travelling in private jets and nightclubs,” the ED alleged.
Saxena was deported to India in January last year from Dubai in connection with the probe into the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case.
(Anand Singh can be contacted at [email protected])
–IANS
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