Citi fraud accused seeks access to salary account

One of the main accused in the Rs 400-crore Citibank fraud has appealed to a court seeking access to his salary account seized by police. Faizan Haider reports.

One of the main accused in the Rs 400-crore Citibank fraud has appealed to a court seeking access to his salary account seized by police.

HT Image

Shivraj Puri, who was arrested on December 30 for masterminding the fraud, told the court that his salary account has nothing to do with the allegations against him and his parents should be allowed to access the account as they are running short of money.

The Gurgaon court will hear his plea on April 7.

"His parents need money but since the accounts are seized, they don't have access to it. They have to pay lawyers and there are several other requirements also," said Sartaj Baswana, Puri's lawyer.

Gurgaon police have requested the court not allow Puri to access his bank account as a lot of cross transactions have taken place through Puri's account.

"All the accounts we have seized is related to fraud and transactions have been taken place from those accounts. Investigation would be hampered if Puri managed to access his account," said a senior police officer.

Puri, who was working as a relationship manager with the Citibank's Gurgaon branch, has been accused of luring high networth investors to invest money in a fake scheme.

During three months of investigation, Gurgaon police have seized 18 accounts of various banks. According to police, out of the 18 accounts, 8 belong to a brokerage firm owned by Puri's father while 10 belong to Puri himself.