Court grants bail to Ratul Puri in AgustaWestland money laundering case

A special court has granted regular bail to businessman Ratul Puri, nephew of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, in the AgustaWestland money laundering case.

Special Judge Arvind Kumar granted bail to Puri on a personal bond of Rs 5 lakh and two sureties of like amount.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had on Tuesday opposed the bail application of businessman Ratul Puri in the money laundering case related to the VVIP chopper scam.

The probe agency told Special Judge Arvind Kumar that the stage was not fit to release Puri on bail since the investigation was ongoing.

The court reserved the order in



the regular bail application and was likely to pass an order on December 2.

The ED had arrested Puri on September 4 in the case and was in judicial custody before being granted bail by the Delhi court.

The probe agency recently filed a supplementary Prosecution Complaint against Puri and Jaspreet Ahuja in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case.

In January 2014, India had scrapped a contract with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary, AgustaWestland, for supplying 12 VVIP choppers to the Indian Air Force over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of kickbacks worth Rs 423 crore being paid to secure the deal.