Charges framed against Puri in Rs 400-cr fraud

A Gurgaon court on Thursday finally framed charges against all the accused in the Rs 400-crore Citibank scam, including the former Citibank relationship manager Shivraj Puri, his parents, former Hero Corporate vice-president and others.

A Gurgaon court on Thursday finally framed charges against all the accused in the Rs 400-crore Citibank scam, including the former Citibank relationship manager Shivraj Puri, his parents, former Hero Corporate vice-president and others.

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The court also rejected second anticipatory bail application of the main accused Diksha Puri — Shivraj’s mother — who had already been announced proclaimed offender for avoiding arrest. The court turned down the plea of dropping the parents from the charges of conspiracy despite the defense lawyers contended that Puri had forged his parents signatures without their knowledge and it was confirmed in the SFL report.

Charges framed against the accused include under section 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) and 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

Puri had lured the high networth individuals (HNIs) and corporate entities, majority from Hero group, into making investment and diverting these investments into stock market and causing huge losses to them.