Bail plea of Citibank fraud co-accused rejected

Gurgaon, Jan 25 (PTI) A city court today rejected bailplea of Sanjay Gupta, a co-accused in the Rs 400 croreCitibank fraud.

The bail plea was rejected by Chief Judicial Magistrate DN Bhardwaj.

Gupta and the mastermind of the fraud Shivraj Puri arecurrently in judicial custody and will be produced before thecourt again on January 28.

Gupta, who was a senior official of Hero CorporateServices, was arrested on January 3 in connection with thefraud that affected about 40 corporate entities and highnetworth individuals (HNIs).

He allegedly received about Rs 20 crore commission fromPuri in lieu of arranging investments.

Puri, a Relationship Manager with Citibank''s Gurgaonbranch, is accused of luring HNIs to invest in bogus schemesby promising unusually high returns, which he ''substantiated''with a forged letter from market regulator Sebi.

A multi-pronged probe involving the police, bankingregulator RBI and capital markets watchdog Sebi is currentlyunderway in the fraud case involving Puri.

Sanjeev Aggarwal, one of the victims, had even namedCitibank''s global chief Vikram Pandit and other seniorexecutives in his complaint.

However, Aggarwal yesterday said he would not pursuehis complaint against the foreign lender.

But Gurgaon Police Commissioner S S Deswal said thepolice would investigate the case thoroughly and comments ofAggarwal have no legal value.