The Enforcement Directorate has arrested businessman Ratul Puri, nephew of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, in connection with a Rs 354 crore bank loan fraud case.
According to a report by news agency PTI, Puri was placed under arrest under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on late Monday night. Puri, who had failed to appear before the ED on a number of occasions, is likely to be produced before a court on Tuesday.
The CBI had conducted a series of raids against Puri, his father and Moser Baer firm promoter Deepak Puri, mother Nita Puri, and others on Sunday.
Last month, it was reported that Puri had given the ED a miss by during a toilet break.
Ratul Puri is the son of Nita and Deepak Puri, the CMD of optical storage media firm Moser Baer. Nita Puri is Kamal Nath’s sister. He had resigned from the post of Executive Director of Moser Baer in 2012, while his parents continued to be on the board. The company in question is known for manufacturing optical storage media like compact discs, DVDs, solid-state storage devices. His company, according to news agency IANS, was taking loans from various banks since 2009 before going for debt restructuring a number of times.
In a complaint filed by his bank before the CBI, it is alleged that when Puri’s company was unable to pay the debt, a forensic audit was done and the account was declared as ‘fraud’ by the Central Bank of India on 20 April, 2019.
