Moser Baer case: Delhi court sends Nitin Bhatnagar to judicial custody

New Delhi [India], August 31 : The Rouse Avenue Court on Thursday sent Nitin Bhatnagar, a citizen from Malta to judicial custody in connection with his alleged involvement in the offence of money laundering in a case of M/s Moser Baer India Ltd. and others.
Bhatnagar was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 on August 22, 2023.
The Special Judge Raghubir Singh on Thursday allowed to send Nitin Bhatnagar to Judicial Custody till September 13, 2023, noted that ED didn't seek further remand of the accused. Meanwhile Court also allowed to carrying of medicines as per the prescription of the doctors during judicial custody.
Bhatnagar was produced before the Court by the ED, after the end of his remand period granted earlier in the matter. Senior Advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey appeared for the Nitin Bhatnagar.
According to ED, the investigation was initiated against M/s Moser Baer India Ltd. and others under the provisions of PMLA, 2002 on the basis of an FIR dated August 17, 2019, registered by CBI under various sections of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The account of M/s Moser Baer India Ltd. was declared as Fraud by the complainant bank on April 20, 2019, and the loan amount was siphoned off by the directors, namely Ratul Puri (Nephew of Congress leader Kamalnath) and his family members.
As per the ED Nitin Bhatnagar helped in opening a bank account in April 2011 in the name of M/s Pristine River Investments Limited in the Bank of Singapore. M/s Pristine River Investments Limited was a Dubai-based investment holding company, under the direction of Ratul Puri. The entity M/s Pristine River Investments Limited was fully owned by the Savannah Trust. Ratul Puri was the settler of the Savannah Trust.
ED investigation revealed that M/s Pristine River Investments Limited received the proceeds of crime amounting to USD 14.18 million from M/s UHY Saxena, M/s Mercon Commodities and M/s Midas Metals International, entities that were managed and controlled by Rajiv Saxena.
According to the ED, Rajiv Saxena is a hawala operator and an accommodation entry provider who runs an accommodation entry business in Dubai, and has laundered proceeds of crime for Moser Baer India Limited. He has created structures for laundering the proceeds of crime generated by Ratul Puri and his family members.
The investigation has revealed that the account of M/s Pristine River Investments Limited has been used for the layering of proceeds of crime and Nitin Bhatnagar was actively involved in the layering of these proceeds of crime for the main accused Ratul Puri. Earlier, ED, in this case, arrested the businessman, Ratul Puri in the year 2019.
Further, during the investigation Rajiv Saxena, the hawala operator and Rajiv Aggarwal, a close associate of Ratul Puri, were arrested in 2021 and prosecution complaints have been already filed against these accused persons. Property amounting to USD 47.95 million has been already attached in this case, stated the ED.