Ratul Puri booked in bank fraud case

The CBI has booked Ratul Puri, nephew of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, and the then Executive Director of Moser Baer and others in connection with a ₹354-crore bank fraud case, officials said on Sunday.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath’s nephew Ratul Puri, a former executive director of Moser Baer, and other persons in connection with a Rs. 354 crore bank fraud case that was filed by Central Bank of India, officials familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

Besides Puri, the company and four other directors have been booked by the central agency in connection with the case.(Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

Besides Ratul Puri and the firm, his father and managing director Deepak Puri, directors Nita Puri (Ratul’s mother and Kamal Nath’s sister), Sanjay Jain and Vineet Sharma have also been booked for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and corruption.

Ratul Puri had resigned from the post of executive director in 2012, while his parents continue to be on the board, the bank said in a statement.

The company is involved in the manufacture of optical storage media like compact discs, DVDs, solid state storage devices.

The case has been registered based on a complaint from Central Bank of India. The company was taking loans from various banks since 2009 and went for debt restructuring a number of times, the bank has alleged in the complaint. When it was unable to pay the debt, a forensic audit was done and the account was declared as “fraud” by the bank on April 20, 2019, it has alleged.