AgustaWestland case: Kamal Nath nephew Ratul Puri’s ED remand extended by five days

ED counsel D P Singh and N K Matta submitted that the house of Niamat Bakshi, a trusted friend of Puri, was searched by ED on September 7, and that he is responsible for manipulating, disposing of and destruction of evidence. The ED submitted that they recovered printouts running into hundreds of pages pertaining to Puri’s email, apart from handwritten notes and diaries linked to the case.

“We have summoned 20 people out of which 10 have been interrogated. We have also recovered 2.5 TB data from searches conducted at Hindustan Power Projects Pvt Ltd. We need to confront the accused with the same,” ED counsel Singh told the court. The ED also submitted that they are still looking for K K Khosla, a witness in AgustaWestland money-laundering case, who they claimed may have been killed.

Puri’s counsel Vijay Aggarwal submitted that if ED knew about the company, why did they not search the office earlier. “The ED is making a new story every time they want to extend his custody. The agency should have confronted the so-called other accused in the previous remand itself.”