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Delhi HC allows Moser Baer scam-accused Deepak Puri, wife to travel abroad
The Puris’ lawyer Vijay Aggarwal sought relief on the grounds that Deepak Puri is nearly 80 years old and is suffering from degenerative chronic bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia associated with lung fibrosis
The Delhi high court allowed Deepak Puri and Nita Puri, parents of businessman Ratul Puri, who are being investigated for multiple charges, including a ₹354 crore bank fraud by Moser Baer, to travel abroad on medical grounds.
While granting the relief, the high court observed that the “right to travel abroad is a valuable one” and “an integral part of the right to personal liberty”.
A special judge at Rouse Avenue Court, Delhi, had, in June this year, allowed Deepak Puri, founder of Moser Baer, and Nita Puri, sister of Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, to travel to New York, US, for medical follow-up and treatment for two months.
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However, the order was challenged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has registered two fraud cases against them. The agency’s special public prosecutor Anupam Sharma argued before justice Manoj Kumar Ohri that the “Puris are accused in a case of immense economic magnitude and the allegations are grave and serious in nature”.
Sharma also argued that if allowed to travel overseas, they may tamper with evidence and might not return to India.
The Puris’ lawyer Vijay Aggarwal sought relief on the grounds that Deepak Puri is nearly 80 years old and is suffering from degenerative chronic bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia associated with lung fibrosis. He said Deepak Puri had also undergone surgery and reconstruction for the treatment of mouth cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, US, in 2016. To control the progression of his lung disease and to follow up on his mouth cancer surgery, he is required to visit California and New York, US.
Discarding CBI’s argument, the high court allowed them to travel for two months on two sureties of ₹1 crore each.
Justice Ohri also asked them to furnish an undertaking disclosing their flight details, telephone numbers and residential details during their stay abroad, and the return date.
The high court further asked the Puris not to make a banking or commercial transaction of any nature.
“Also, as a voluntarily undertaking by the respondents, their son Ratul Puri, a co-accused in the present case, shall deposit his passport with the petitioner/CBI till the time the respondents return to India after two months from the date of their travel, if not already done,” the court order, reviewed by HT, said.
Both, CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED), are investigating the Puris for at least four cases of fraud, cheating and money laundering.
The CBI had registered a bank fraud case against Puris and their company Moser Baer in August 2019 for cheating Central Bank of India of ₹354 crore. A fresh case was registered against them last year for cheating Punjab National Bank of ₹787 crore.
ED has also accused Ratul Puri, currently on bail, in the AgustaWestland scam, saying he played a key role in laundering crores of rupees.
The AgustaWestland case centres on allegations that bribes were paid to middlemen, perhaps even politicians, when India agreed to buy 12 AgustaWestland helicopters built by Italian defence manufacturing giant Finmeccanica (now known as the Leonardo Group) at an estimated cost of ₹3,727 crore in 2010.
The deal was scrapped in 2014 over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of payment of kickbacks.
