india

Updated: Apr 18, 2019 23:34 IST

The Enforcement Directorate has seized 145.89 kg of gold jewellery worth Rs 82.11 crores from multiple locations belonging to Musaddilal Jewllers Pvt Ltd and others in connection with a money laundering probe filed during demonetisation.

The agency said in a statement that it has searched the registered office and residence of promoter Kailash Gupta, the jewellery showroom of Musaddilal Jewellers Pvt Ltd (MJPL) at Hyderabad, it’s Vijaywada showroom, the residence of Pavan Agarwal (partner Shri Balaji Gold), his office, the residence of Neel Sunder Tharad (proprietor of Ashta Lakshmi Gold), and the office of a the CA, Sanjay Sarda.

The ED initiated the probe under the money laundering act on the basis of an FIR filed by Telangana Police, which was, in turn, based on a complaint filed by the I-T department against Kailash Gupta, his sons and their companies for conspiring with certain bullion dealers, chartered accountants and close relatives and illegally depositing huge amounts of unaccounted demonetised cash in their accounts. For this purpose, they fraudulently created around 5,200 fake backdated advance sale receipts on November 8, 2016.

“During probe, it was revealed that after announcement of demonetisation scheme, the accused illegally deposited Rs 110.85 crore in their bank accounts falsely claiming that within a few hours they received advances of less than Rs 2 lakh each from over 5,200 customers, on November 8, 2016 night for purchase of gold/jewellery from their firms. All these invoices were found to be bogus.

Further, analysis of CCTV footage of their offices and neighbourhood revealed that no such activity of purchase of gold was carried out during that period. It also revealed that the 5,200 invoices were fraudulently raised on a later date, said ED in a statement.