NE BUSINESS BUREAU
NEW DELHI, MAY 21
Shivraj Puri, the alleged mastermind behind the Rs 400-crore Citibank scam of 2010 lodged in a Bhondsi prison, died at a Delhi hospital, officials said on Friday. Puri (46) was suffering from tuberculosis (TB), they said.
This is the third Bhondsi prison inmate to die after suffering from TB in the last 18 days, a senior official said. According to him, Puri was in prison since November 2020 in a case of fraud registered at the Kherki Daula police station.
He was undergoing treatment at the LRS Hospital, Mehrauli. Puri died around 9:30 am on Thursday, the official said. Puri was arrested by Gurugram Police from Dehradun in November 2020 in a case of land fraud. He had been declared a proclaimed offender (PO) earlier, he said.
Puri was first nabbed in 2010 in connection with the Rs 400-crore Citibank scam. He was charged with luring high net worth individuals and corporate entities into making investments and then diverting the money to the stock market and causing huge losses to the tune of Rs 405.52 crores, police said. Working as a relationship manager with Citibank, Shivraj had allegedly siphoned off money amounting to Rs 400 crore of various customers to fictitious accounts, they said.
After coming out of prison on bail in 2018, he went into hiding and also cheated many more people. He was declared a proclaimed offender in 2018 and arrested in 2020, the police added. On May 2, inmate Shakeel (27) of Nuh district, who was lodged in the prison in a case under the POCSO Act, died in LRS hospital, Delhi, after suffering from TB.
Another inmate, Sandeep, alias Sonu, (45) of Inchapuri village, who was convicted in a murder case in 2010 and was suffering from TB, died on Tuesday, the prison official said.
