ED Seizes gold jewellery worth Rs. 82.1 Cr. in Hyderabad, Vijaywada
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI
The Enforcement Directorate has seized 145.89 kg of gold jewellery worth Rs. 82.11 crore during searches at multiple locations in connection with a demonetization case.
According to the agency, searches were carried out at the office-cum-residence of Kailash Gupta, jewellery showroom of Musaddilal Jewellers in Hyderabad and Vijaywada, residence of Pavan Agarwal, residence of Neel Sunder Tharad (proprietor of Ashta Lakshmi Gold), and offer of chartered accountant Sanjay Sarda.
The probe was based on an FIR lodge by the Telangana police on the basis of a complaint filed by the Income Tax Department against Mr. Gupta, his sons and their companies Musaddilal Gems & Jewellery, Musaddilal Jewellers and Vaishnavi Bullion, it said.
Illegal deposit
They were accused of conspiring with certain bullion dealers, chartered accountants and close relatives to illegally deposit huge amounts of unaccounted demonetised cash in their accounts.
“For this purpose, they fraudulently cheated around 5,200 back-dated fabricated advance sale receipts dated November 8, 2016, each for an amount less than Rs. 2 lakh, to avoid furnishing PAN detailes,” said the agency.
The ED said that immediately after announcement of demonetization, the accused had illegally deposited Rs. 110.85 crore in their bank accounts and that of their companies, claiming that within a few hours they had received advances of less than Rs. 2 lakh each from more than 5,200 customers, on the night of November 8, 2016, for purchase of gold/jewellery from their firms.
“All these invoices were found to be bogus. Further, analysis of CCTV footages of their offices and that of the neighbourhood revealed that on such activity of purchase of gold was carried out during that period,” said the Directorate.
“The accused have admitted that they had cheated fake sale invoices… they fail to give any satisfactory account of the source of this illegal cash,” it was alleged.
