By Anand Singh
New Delhi, Nov 6 (SocialNews.XYZ) Ratul Puri, the nephew of Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, arranged money to the tune of $6.5 lakh in the bank accounts of Dubai-based hawala operator Rajiv Saxena's companies in 2011 from Biritsh national and alleged middleman Christian Michel James's Global Services FZE, the CBI claimed in its supplementary chargesheet filed in connection with 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 the Finance Manager.
The copy of the statement, which is part of 12,421-page chargesheet filed in a Delhi court last month, has been viewed 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, claimed in his statement: "Ratul used to visit the office of UHY Saxena in Dubai and had meetings with Rajiv Saxena."
He said Naveen Batra and Rajeev Aggarwal, both directors of Puri's Moser Baer Engineering and Construction Ltd (MBECL), also used to visit the office of Saxena in Dubai in connection with investments by UHY Saxena's group company Matrix Group in Optima Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, a company owned by Puri.
Khan revealed that Saxena had agreed to make some investment in Puri's Optima Infrastructure Pvt Ltd through his Mauritius based company, Rigel Power Ltd.
Khan in his statement also revealed that whenever remittances were made to Saxena's Matrix group on behalf of Puri, Aggarwal used to inform him over telephone about the same and enquired about the receipt.
Khan also revealed that Saxena's Midas Metal International LLC, Eurotrade Ltd, and Pacific International LLC received several amounts from Michel's Global Services FZE in 2011.
He said, "Midas Metal received $2.25 lakh on December 7, 2011 into its Standard Chartered bank account in Dubai from Michel's firm. Similarly, Eurotrade LLC received $2.25 lakh from Global Services FZE on August 22, 2011 in the bank account maintained at Standrad Chartered in Dubai, while Pacific International LLC received $2 lakh on September 28, 2011 and November 16, 2011 in its Barclays Bank account in Dubai."
Khan said, "The afroresaid payments to Midas International LLC, Pacific International and Eurotrade from the account of Global Services were arranged by Aggarwal on behalf of Puri."
According to the CBI, on being specifically asked, Khan said that there was no document in the form of agreement or email or letter with him to show that the aforesaid three payments were arranged by Puri.
Khan, however, also stated that Saxena's company used to maintain the ledger of Puri and on the basis of that, during the year 2011-12, apart from Michel's company, funds were also received from other entities.
Khan also identified the signature of Saxena on the letter head of UHY Saxena about the transfer of $1.3 million and $3 lakh to Puri's West Asia Trading (WAT) FZE.
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. He is currently out on bail. Michel was extradited to India on December 5, 2018 and is presently lodged in Delhi's high security Tihar jail.
IANS tried to contact the advocate of Puri over the allegations through messages, but didn't receive any reply till the time of filing this report.
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.
On January 1, 2014, India cancelled the contract with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and on charges of paying kickbacks amounting to Rs 423 crore.
The CBI had earlier filed a chargesheet in this case on September 1, 2017 against then IAF Chief, Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi, and 11 other accused.
(Anand Singh can be contacted at anand.s@ians.in)
Source: IANS
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