Citi fraud: Puri sent to 14 days' judicial custody

Gurgaon, Jan 14 (PTI) Shivraj Puri, the main accused in
the estimated Rs 400 crore fraud at Citibank's Gurgaon branch,
was remanded in 14 days' judicial custody by a local court
today.
Chief Judicial Magistrate D N Bhardwaj ordered Puri to be
taken into judicial remand for 14 days till January 28 at a
hearing Friday. Puri has been in police custody for the past
14 days in connection with the fraud.
Puri, who was formerly a Relationship Manager at
Citibank's Gurgaon branch, was initially taken into 7 days'
police custody on December 30, 2010, after the Rs 400 crore
scam was detected. Later, police remand of Puri was extended
for six days on January 6 and then, subsequently, for two days
on January 12.
He is accused of luring high net-worth individuals to
invest in a bogus investment scheme on the pretext of high
returns, while diverting the funds to the stock market.
Meanwhile, the police investigation into the fraud has
now been expanded to take into account the charges made in a
first information report filed by high net-worth individual
Sanjeev Aggarwal, with the initial probe into the scam done on
the basis of an FIR lodged by Citibank NA, Gurgaon Police
Commissioner S S Deswal said.
This could lead to another production warrant being
served on Puri by the police in the next few days. "In this
FIR as well, Puri seems to be main accused, so we may seek his
production warrant in the next few days," Deswal said.
Puri invested most of the ill-gotten funds in Nifty
options, a derivative product with the NSE benchmark index
Nifty as the underlying asset, where the investor has no
obligation to take delivery and needs to pay only margin
money. In these derivatives instruments, investors bet on the
upward or downward movement of the Nifty and returns depend on
the accuracy of such bets.
Victims of the Citibank fraud include the promoters of
Hero Group (Rs 250 crore) and Helion Advisors Managing
Director Sanjeev Aggarwal (Rs 33 crore).
Other entities whose funds were allegedly diverted by
Puri to the stock market include OKS Span Tech (Rs 2 crore),
Satyam Auto (Rs 25 crore), Mayar Infratech (Rs 24 crore),
Spaid (Rs 62 crore), Karopat Pad (Rs 8 crore), Aero Infratec
(Rs 25 crore) and Munab Braej (Rs 71 crore).
Puri is accused of luring about 40 high net-worth
individuals and corporate entities to invest in the 'ponzi'
scheme on the false promise of sky-high returns. A senior
official of Hero Corporate Services, Sanjay Gupta, who
allegedly conspired with Puri to arrange for his company's
funds to be "invested" in the scheme, is also in police
custody. MORE PTI CORR
ASR


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