Ratul Puri and his family have denied any wrongdoing in the case
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath's nephew Ratul Puri led a "lavish" lifestyle using a credit card issued by a Dubai-based hawala operator, an accused in the VVIP chopper scam, to travel in private jets and visit night clubs, the Enforcement Directorate has said in its charge-sheet in a Rs 8,000 crore bank loan money laundering case.
The ED filed a prosecution complaint against Mr Puri, his associates and Moser Baer India Ltd, a company promoted by his father, before a special court in Delhi on Thursday.
The case registered under the criminal provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) is related to the "misappropriation" of about Rs 8,000 crore bank loans, the Enforcement Directorate said in a statement issued on Friday.
"Probe revealed that Puri had transferred funds consisting of bank loans to various subsidiaries of Moser Baer across the world in the guise of giving loans and investments. Further, Puri 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 Dubai-based hawala operator Rajiv Saxena," the probe agency said.
Mr Saxena, a prime accused in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP choppers money laundering case, was deported to India from Dubai early this year.
"The total amount spent on the credit card is $4.5 million which has been used for lavish stays, on holiday travelling in private jets and night clubs," the probe agency claimed.
Mr Puri, who has been an executive director in Moser Baer, was arrested by the agency in this case in August and is at present in judicial custody. He and his family have denied any wrongdoing on their part.
The ED said loans to the tune of Rs 7,979.30 crore, taken from various banks, have been misused and misappropriated by Moser Baer, its directors and promoters for their own use and have further been transferred in the companies of Mr Puri's Hindustan Power Group.
"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 ED said.
"Corporate guarantees were given to lure the banks to disburse loans to subsidiaries beyond the net worth of Moser Baer," the ED alleged.
Over a period of time, it said, the receivables were written off and investments were shown to be diminished and written off.
"No efforts were made to recover the amounts. Most of the subsidiaries have an outstanding financial liability towards the banks totalling to Rs 7,979.30 crore," it said.