The central probe agency has charged Ratul Puri with "destruction of evidence" (File)
Ratul Puri, nephew of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, "threatened" VVIP choppers scam accused Rajiv Saxena not to share evidence against his father and an uncle, the Enforcement Directorate has alleged in its latest charge sheet.
The central probe agency has charged the 47-year-old promoter of Hindustan Power Projects Pvt Ltd with "destruction of evidence" and said it had to go to the extent of recovering "ashes" of burnt documents during raids at the premises of Ratul Puri's close aide Niamat Singh.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), in its prosecution complaint before a special court on November 2, charged Ratul Puri of using corporate structures "owned or maintained" by Saxena to launder kickbacks in the scam received from the three alleged middlemen in the case -- Christian Michel James, Carlos Gerosa and Guido Haschke.
Saxena and Christian Michel James were deported by probe agencies from Dubai this year and in 2018, respectively, and at present, they are in judicial custody.
"Rajiv Saxena is an approver in this case. He has also been threatened and pressurised by Ratul Puri not to give documents/evidences against Ratul's father and uncle", the ED said.
Ratul Puri's father Deepak Puri is the managing director of optical storage media firm Moser Baer, but the identity of the "uncle" has not been stated by the ED in the charge sheet.
The over 100-pages charge sheet accessed by PTI also mentions the name of Ratul Puri's cousin and Chief Minister Kamal Nath's younger son Bakul Nath, for undertaking various joint trips abroad.
Ratul Puri's mother Nita is Kamal Nath's sister.
An email recovered by the ED found that Ratul Puri, Bakul Nath and a few others made a trip in June, 2011 on a "private jet" to a five-star luxury resort called Wynn in Las Vegas.
The agency said Ratul Puri created and operated at least three email ids "for giving instructions for laundering proceeds of crime which would not be traced to him."