A special court here on Friday issued the non-bailable warrant (NBW) against businessman Ratul Puri in connection with the AgustaWestland money laundering case.
Special Judge Arvind Kumar allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) plea seeking issuance of NBW against Puri as the agency claimed that he has not joined the probe for the last many days despite several summons.
Puri's Advocate Vijay Aggarwal also moved an application for the dismissal of the ED's application for issuance of NBW against Puri on the ground of "misrepresenting and concealing various facts" in the ED's application for the NBW.
The matter is now listed for August 13.
In its plea, the ED expressed apprehensions that Ratul Puri, who is the nephew of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, may flee and witness may be influenced.
"The people have started retraction from their statements to the Income Tax. We fear witness will be influenced by each passing day. We have apprehension that he will flee," the ED said in its plea.
ED also stated that Ratul skipped questioning and his anticipatory bail was rejected by a CBI special court.
Puri's anticipatory bail plea was recently rejected by the same court. The court on Tuesday while dismissing his anticipatory bail plea stated that "considering the evidence collected so far by ED and the serious nature of allegations, the gravity of the offence and the alleged conduct of the accused the court did not find it fit to grant anticipatory bail to Puri".
( With inputs from ANI )