IT summons HNIs duped by Puri

The investigation wing of the Income Tax department, which initiated a probe into the Rs 400 crore Citibank fraud at the bank's Gurgaon branch, has summoned High Net-worth Individuals (HNIs) who made investments in a fraudulent scheme, allegedly floated by Shivraj Puri. Debobrat Ghose reports.

The investigation wing of the Income Tax department, which initiated a probe into the Rs 400 crore Citibank fraud at the bank's Gurgaon branch, has summoned High Net-worth Individuals (HNIs) who made investments in a fraudulent scheme, allegedly floated by Shivraj Puri.

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"We've summoned the HNIs and will scrutinise all documents to look into their source of income, to ascertain the money trail, legality of the investments and whether any black money has been flowed into the ponzi scheme," an IT official told HT.

The fraud, at present, covers investments by about 20 corporate entities and two dozen HNIs. So far, only one HNI client — Helion Advisors Pvt Ltd's MD Sanjeev Aggarwal, who lost about R33 crore — has filed an FIR in which he accused top Citibank officials. "We're looking into communications by the HNIs with Citibank officials,” the official said.