Hyderabad: Musaddilal jewellery worth Rs 82 crore seized

Hyderabad: In a major crackdown, the Enforcement Directorate raided at least four premises belonging to Musaddilal Jewellers and confiscated Rs 82 crore worth of gold jewellery over the last 48 hours.

This is perhaps one of the biggest seizures by the ED in recent times under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The seizures pertain to a money laundering case in which the managing director of the group, Kailash Chand Gupta, and his two sons, Nitin Gupta and Nikhil Gupta, along with other accused, allegedly created forged documents and fraudulently exchanged over Rs 110 crore demonetised cash soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation in November 2016.

All the three were arrested by the Central Crime Station (CCS).

As the investigation progressed, five more persons, including Pawan Agarwal, proprietor of Sri Balaji Gold in Abids, and Narendra Kumar Naredi (brother-in-law of Kailash Chand Gupta) were arrested. Sources told Deccan Chronicle that the ED raided Musaddilal Jewellers Pvt Ltd, Musaddilal Gems and Jewellers Pvt Ltd and M/s Vaishnavi Bullion Pvt Ltd in Hyderabad and another showroom belonging to the same group in Vijayawada.

The operations were supervised by the newly appointed joint director of ED, Abhishek Goyal.

Jewller MaDE fake receipts for 5,200 customers
In a major crackdown, the Enforcement Directorate raided at least four premises belonging to Mussadilal Jewellers and confiscated `82 crore worth of gold jewellery over the last 48 hours.

The seizures were made under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) which empowers the agency to confiscate properties acquired by money launderers with the “dirty money.”

Under this law, the proceeds of crime have to be confiscated and should be deposited with the government.

Soon after demonetisation was announced, on November 8, 2016, Kailash Chand Gupta, his two sons along with other accused, hatched a plan to convert their black money into white by depositing it in banks after creating fake receipts of gold purchases.

The accused generated fake advance payment receipts for Rs 110 crore and showed purchases by 5,200 customers within a span of about four hours, from 8.30 pm to 12 midnight (soon after the demon announcement).

In the books, they claimed that all those 5,200 customers had made cash payments of around Rs 1.90 to Rs 1.95 lakh each (as they would have required PAN cards for cash transactions over Rs 2 lakh) after which the money was deposited in Axis Bank.

It was the Income Tax department that first smelt a rat. After making basic enquiries, they wrote to the Hyderabad city police and the investigation was then entrusted to the CCS of the Hyderabad city police.