New Delhi: The Income Tax department has seized a Rs. 300-crore bungalow in Delhi under the anti-Benami law in its probe against Ratul Puri, nephew of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, and Deepak Puri. The tax department also seized foreign funds worth $40 million.
Also, the properties of both under Benami Property Transactions Act, including one immovable property registered in name of Ramaa Advisors Pvt Ltd. situated at APJ Abdul Kalam Road has been attached, according to the sources.
“The immovable property at 27A APJ Abdul Kalam Road was purchased utilizing a Foreign Direct Investment of USD 3 Million from a BVI based shell company namely Bronson Financial Inc. on a long term basis for the purposes of software development in 2002,” the source informed.
“Investigation revealed that unaccounted funds of promoters were round-tripped through BVI based shell entity. The recipient company never commenced its business of software development. Instead, entire FDI was diverted for the acquisition of house for use by the promoters Ratul Puri and his family. The market value of his property is estimated to be more than Rs 300 crores,” it said.
In April, tax officials conducted raids at Ratul Puri’s companies and had said they had found documents of illegal transactions and tax evasion worth Rs.1,350 crore. It was on the basis of these raids that the tax department initiated proceeding under the anti-Benami law.
Hours after a Delhi court issued a Non-Bailable Warrant (NBW) against Ratul Puri on Friday, he denied his involvement in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam and called the issuance of the warrant as “unfortunate”.
The case pertains to alleged irregularities in the purchase of 12 VVIP choppers from Italy-based Finmeccanica’s British subsidiary AgustaWestland.
