Delhi HC upholds trial court order allowing MoserBaer founder Deepak Puri to travel abroad for treatment

The Delhi High Court has upheld a trial court order permitting MoserBaer founder Deepak Puri to travel abroad to the United States for treatment.

The order was passed on an application moved by the CBI challenging the trial court order, saying there was no emergent medical condition requiring Puri to travel to the US for his treatment.

“I find no infirmity in the impugned order dated 23.12.2020 passed by the Ld. Special Judge, the same is, therefore, upheld. Consequently, the present petition is dismissed and disposed of accordingly,” said the single-judge bench of Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar while turning down the petition.

The bench had earlier reserved its order on January 27 and it was uploaded on Saturday.

The trial court had passed an order on December 23, 2020, allowing Deepak Puri, who is an accused in bank fraud, and his wife Nita (also named in the FIR) to go abroad.

Advocate Anupam Sharma, appearing for the CBI while opposing the permission to go abroad, said half of the population in Delhi has already developed antibodies to Covid-19. “This man (Puri) wants to travel to New York and other places which are highly infected,” Sharma said.

While responding to the submissions made by CBI, advocate Vijay Aggarwal, appearing for Puri, told the court that the CBI is using these tricks to beat the order of the trial court.

Earlier, CBI submitted that he might not return to India and he might move the money he allegedly got in connection with the bank fraud.

Aggarwal said, “My client is co-operating with the agencies and has to go for the treatment of his mouth cancer.” He told the court that businessmen Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya went away and never came back, but whenever Deepak Puri has gone abroad, he has always come back. He further submitted that Deepak Puri has been travelling to the USA every year since 2016 when he underwent a surgery for his mouth cancer.

The Court asked CBI as to when did it visit Puri’s home. “Yes, we visited his house to interrogate him but he did not cooperate with us and evaded the questions by saying that he does not remember anything,” the CBI counsel responded.

The CBI had, in 2019 filed a case against Deepak Puri, his son Ratul Puri and others on a complaint filed by the Central Bank of India. The bank had accused MoserBaer and its director of defrauding the bank of Rs 354 crore.

The bank had claimed that MoserBaer and its directors, allegedly forged and fabricated documents to induce the Central Bank of India to release funds.

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