Citi fraud: Puri`s remand extended, cops look for missing iPad

Gurgaon, Jan 6 (PTI) A local court in north Indian state
of Haryana, on Thursday extended police remand of Shivraj
Puri, the main accused in the Rs 300 crore Citibank fraud, by
6 days as police sought time to recover an iPad used by the
mastermind to communicate with his clients.
Police also sought information from the National Stock
Exchange (NSE) about the investments made by Puri through
brokerage firms, including Religare and Bonanza.
The Chief Judicial Magistrate, D N Bhardwaj, remanded
Puri in police custody for six more days after public
prosecutor said that police needed more time to gather
evidence in the case.
Puri, who was a Relationship Manager at Citibank's
branch, in Gurgaon, a Delhi suburb, was arrested by the police
last week after the Rs 300 crore scam was detected. He was
remanded in police custody for seven days.
Opposing the application of the police for extension of
custody, Puri's counsel Sartaj Baswana argued that remand was
being sought to extract confession and fabricate documents.
Baswana also moved an application for exclusive
meeting with Puri. "I have moved an application for giving
legal assistance to him once again through the exclusion of
police officials," he told reporters later.
Police, sources said, are keen to get hold of Puri's iPad
which could provide vital clues about the details of money
transactions and contacts of Puri who is accused of luring
high networth individuals to invest in bogus schemes on the
promise of unusually high returns and diverted their money to
stock markets.
Meanwhile, police requested the premier Indian bourse NSE
to provide details of sale-purchase transactions undertaken by
Puri through different brokerage firms -- Religare, Bonanza
and Norman Martin.
Gurgaon Police Commissioner S S Deswal also said, "We are
verifying contents of record with NSE with regards to
transactions."
Most of the funds were invested by Puri into Nifty options
-- a derivative product with the NSE benchmark index Nifty as
underlying security, where the investor has no obligation to
take the delivery and needs to pay only margin money.
In this derivative, investors bet on upward or downward
move of Nifty and returns depend on accuracy of such bets.
Victims of the Citibank fraud include Hero Group
promoters (Rs 250 crore) and managing director of Helion
Advisors Sanjeev Aggarwal (Rs 33 crore).
The police had earlier in the week arrested Sanjay Gupta,
Associate Vice President of Hero Corporate Services for
allegedly colluding with Puri and investing huge funds
belonging to promoters of the Hero Group.
Puri is reported to have paid a hefty commission of
Rs 20 crore to Gupta.