The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized 145.89 kg of gold jewellery worth ₹82.11 crore as a result of searches conducted in the premises of a jewellery group and its associates in Hyderabad and Vijayawada.

An ED statement said the raids were conducted at the office-cum-residence of Kailash Gupta and jewellery showroom of Musaddilal Jewellers Private Ltd.

The residence of Pavan Agarwal (a partner at Shri Balaji Gold), his business premises and the residence of Neel Sunder Tharad (the proprietor of Ashta Lakshmi Gold) were raided. The office of chartered accountant, Sanjay Sarda, was also raided in an ongoing investigation under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in a demonetisation case.

The ED has initiated investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by the Telangana Police on the basis of complaint filed by the Income Tax Department against Kailash Gupta, his sons and their companies Musaddilal Gems & Jewellery, Musaddilal Jewellers Pvt Ltd and Vaishnavi Bullion Ltd.

They have been charged for conspiring with certain bullion dealers, chartered accountants and close relatives by blatantly misusing the scheme of demonetisation by illegally depositing huge amounts of unaccounted demonetised cash in their accounts, the ED said. “For this purpose they fraudulently created around 5,200 back-dated fabricated advance sale receipts dated November 8, 2016, each for an amount less than ₹2 lakh to avoid furnishing PAN details,” the ED statement said.

Illegal deposits

During the course of investigation, it was revealed that immediately after announcement of demonetisation, the accused had illegally deposited ₹110.85 crore in their bank accounts falsely claiming that within a few hours they had received advances of less than ₹2 lakh each from more than 5,200 customers, on the night of November 8, 2016, for purchase of gold and 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 no such activity of purchase of gold was carried out during that period. It was further revealed that invoices were fraudulently raised on a later date, the ED said.

Investigation under PMLA showed that the illegally deposited unaccounted cash to the tune of ₹110.85 crore in the bank accounts of the accused and their companies and subsequently ₹80 crore approximately was transferred to the bank accounts of various gold bullion dealers like Ashta Lakshmi Gold, Shri Balaji Gold. among others, in the guise of purchase of gold. The accused have admitted that they had created fake sale invoices dated November 8, 2016.The accused failed to give any satisfactory account of the source of this illegal cash and also failed to provide the details of the accounts regarding the utilisation of around 270 kg of gold so purchased out of this money, the ED said.

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