The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday arrested Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath’s nephew Ratul Puri in connection with an alleged bank fraud to the tune of Rs 354 crore when he was an executive director of the digital data storage device-maker Moser Baer.
Congress veteran Nath called the arrest “purely mala fide action”. He accused the Union government of using the central agencies to target leaders such as former finance minister P. Chidambaram and industrialists.
The ED, which picked up Ratul from Delhi, had initiated a money-laundering investigation based on an FIR registered by the CBI last week.
A day after registering the case, the CBI had on Sunday conducted searches at six places, including the office of Moser Baer India Ltd at the Okhla Industrial Area in Delhi and the residences of current and former directors of the company.
The CBI FIR had also named Ratul’s parents — Nita Puri, who is Nath’s sister, and Deepak Puri. The case was related to cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly cheating Central Bank of India to the tune of Rs 354 crore over a period ending November 29, 2014.
Besides Moser Baer MD Deepak, whole-time director Nita and then executive director Ratul, the agency had also named directors Sanjay Jain and Vineet Sharma and unknown public servants and private individuals as accused in the case.