india

Updated: Apr 24, 2019 07:11 IST

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday attached jewellery showrooms in Mumbai and Pune belonging to Kolkata-based Shree Ganesh Jewellery House India Ltd (SGJHIL), accused of defrauding a consortium of 25 banks of Rs 2,672 crore.

According to the ED, the company availed credit in the form of working capital loans, discounted export bills from the bank consortium, led by State Bank of India (SBI), and siphoned the funds into its associate and subsidiary companies in India and abroad.

In June 2018, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested Nilesh Parekh, promoter of SGJHIL.

“Accused Nilesh Parekh, Kamlesh Parekh and Umesh Parekh, chief promoters of the company have defrauded the consortium of bank by fraudulently floating numerous companies in India and abroad and also wholly-owned subsidiaries in Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong,” said the ED in a statement on Tuesday.

The agency claimed the promoters exported gold jewellery to these overseas entitites from their Kolkata manufacturing unit but did not repay the banks from which they had availed a loan to do so.

The ED said the money SGHIL made from exports was also used to acquire movable and immovable properties, such as factories, offices, showrooms and residential flats across India.

According to the ED, the total value of SGJHIL’s attached properties (including showrooms, factories and commercial premises in Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gujarat, Howrah and Siliguri) and bank balances amount to Rs175 crore.