Puri helps cops recover Rs6 cr

Shivraj Puri, the prime accused in the Citibank fraud case, seems to have finally given up. He is now cooperating with the police as he helped them recover Rs5.68 crore, for the first time since his arrest in December 2010.

Shivraj Puri, the prime accused in the Citibank fraud case, seems to have finally given up. He is now cooperating with the police as he helped them recover Rs5.68 crore, for the first time since his arrest in December 2010.

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Puri was sent to three-day police custody by a court on June 14 in a separate case filed against Citibank officials by a DLF City resident Sanjeev Aggarwal in January this year.

In the face of recent developments, police officials, who expect to recover R35-40 crore or more, successfully got his remand extended till June 20 when he was produced before a court on June 15.

The money has been recovered from individuals as well as companies that received money from Puri for investments or disposing of his ‘profits’ in real estate deals.

Puri had been lodged at a district jail in Bhondsi since January along with Hero Corporate Services vice president Sanjay Gupta and father Raghuraj Puri.

According to sources, the nearly 6-month jail term forced Puri to break down and come up with more details.

One of the individuals whom the police reached, agreed to return R15 lakh he had received from Puri through a bank transfer. A hefty amount is also expected to be recovered from a battery-producing firm that had not only received compensation from Citibank, but from Puri himself too. This company had threatened Puri with police action in December before the matter came out in the open.

Puri, along with Gupta and others, had lured more than two dozen high networth investors and corporate entities to deposit money in an account opened by him in the name of his parents and grandparents.