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VVIP Chopper Scam: Delhi High Court Dismissed the Plea Of Ratul Puri Nephew Of Kamal Nath
In February 2010, the governing UPA government approved an agreement to buy 12 AgustaWestland AW101 helicopters for Rs 3,600-crore Indian Air Force to transport the president, PM and other VVIPs. In February 2013, the government agreed to suspend the agreement following the arrest of Finmeccanica president Giuseppe Orsi and Agusta Westland CEO Bruno Spagnolini on allegations of bribing mediators to maintain the agreement with IAF. The Congress-led UPA government decided to cancel the VVIP chopper agreement with AgustaWestland in 2014 on the basis that the governance agreement was violated. The state has regained most of the money for the agreement awarded to the Italian company.
Ratul Puri is a businessman, nephew of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath. He also withdraws his petition from the Delhi HC seeking direction to the lower court not to utter order on his anticipatory bail plea without being heard on his pending applications. Ratul Puri is an accused in the VVIP Chopper Scam relating to the money laundering case. Puri also sought a week's extension of interim protection from arrest and challenged the reservation of an anticipatory bail order, saying that the court did not decide to seek a copy of an FIR and a statement recorded under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Justice Sunil Gaur denied the plea after Puri's lawyer requested approval to withdraw the complaint. The court has given him freedom during the day to notify the trial court with the complaint. Senior attorney Abhishek Manu Singhvi and lawyer Vijay Aggarwal, defending Puri, said the court placed an award on his anticipatory bail request but did not decide on his requests for a record of the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) and a statement collected under the PMLA.
The trial court had granted him protection from arrest. Recently, The ED(Enforcement Directorate ) had said to the puri to appear in front of them regarding the questioning in the case pertaining to the now-scrapped Rs 3,600 crore chopper deal with AgustaWestland.For Further Investigation, they are seeking for businessman custody through ED.
The situation concerns suspected irregularities in the acquisition of 12 VVIP choppers from the British subsidiary AgustaWestland based in Italy, Finmeccanica. The deal was cancelled by the NDA govt in 2014 over supposed violation of contractual commitments and kickback billing fees to secure the agreement.
