The Enforcement Directorate has been investigating Sushen Mohan Gupta in connection to the AgustaWestland scam and now wants to interrogate Ratul Puri in Gupta's presence.
New Delhi: The officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) want to interrogate Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath's nephew Ratul Puri in the presence of AgustaWestland middleman Sushen Mohan Gupta in connection with the VVIP chopper scam.
The ED has informed the court about this and the court has subsequently extended the remand period of Gupta, who was arrested by ED, till April 8.
However, Gupta's advocate opposed the ED suggestion, saying that the way in which Gupta and Khaitan's face-to-face interrogation was done, it gave rise to several doubts about the investigation techniques of the ED.
The ED has been continuously interrogating Gupta. He had been arrested by the agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The investigating agency had said that Gupta's role in this case has come to light on the basis of the disclosure of Rajiv Saxena, a government witness.
Also read: AgustaWestland Scam: ED files supplementary chargesheet against Christian Michel
Saxena has been brought to India from the UAE. He had said that he feared that Gupta had some payment-related information on the purchase of AgustaWestland VVIP helicopters and this relation will be ascertained.
The ED had also told the court that information on monetary transaction are mentioned in short and in codes in Gupta's diary and pen drive.
The ED alleges that Gupta is trying to influence the investigation by giving false information about codes and abbreviations.
According to the agency, Gupta's diary mentions 'RG' many places. The ED told the court that a person named 'RG' has received over Rs 50 crore between 2004 and 2016 from Gupta.
Gupta has described the person named 'RG' as Rajat Gupta. Rajat has already accepted he had cash transactions with Sushen since 2007.
The ED has also said that another AgustaWestland middleman Christian Michel knew Mrs Gandhi since 1986.
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