Crackdown by the ED on former NCP treasurer and Rajya Sabha member Ishwarlal Shankarlal Jain and his son, others
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached 70 immovable assets worth Rs.315.6 crore from Rajmal Lakhichand Jewellers Pvt Ltd, R L Gold Pvt. Ltd., and Manraj Jewelers Pvt. Ltd in a major action against former NCP treasurer and Rajya Sabha member Ishwarlal Shankarlal Jain and his son Manish Ishwarlal Jain Lalwani.
The financial probe agency in a statement said the ED has attached 70 immovable assets located in Jalgaon, Mumbai, Thane, and Sillod in Maharashtra, and Kutch in Gujarat among other areas; and movable assets such as windmills, silver, and diamond jewellery or bullion and Indian currency, all assets valued at Rs.315.60 crore, in a bank fraud case of Rajmal Lakhichand Jewelers Pvt. Ltd., R L Gold Pvt. Ltd., and Manraj Jewelers Pvt. Ltd and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 on Saturday.
The ED said the attached movable and immovable assets include the benami properties acquired by the promoters Ishwarlal Shankarlal Jain Lalwani, Manish Ishwarlal Jain Lalwani, and others.
The ED case is based on three FIRs registered by the CBI under various sections of IPC alleging that the Company and its Directors or Promoters were involved in offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, and criminal misconduct, causing wrongful loss of more than Rs.352.49 crore to the State Bank of India against Rajmal Lakhichand Jewellers Pvt Ltd, RL Gold Pvt Ltd, and Manraj Jewellers Pvt Ltd, and their promoters, directors, and guarantors — Ishwarlal Shankarlal Jain Lalwani, Manish Ishwarlal Jain Lalwani, Pushadevi Ishwarlal Jain Lalwani, and Neetika Manish Jain Lalwani who were named as accused.
According to the complaint filed with the CBI, Rajmal Lakhichand Jewellers caused a loss of Rs.206.73 crore to the bank, RL Gold caused an Rs.69.19 crore loss and Manraj Jewellers a Rs.76.57 crore loss.
The ED said that its probe revealed that the promoters had submitted fake financials to avail of such loans.
The accused promoters allegedly sold properties that had been mortgaged with the bank for the loans they had borrowed. The accused had misused the credit facilities of the bank and then used the money for purposes other than what they had mentioned while borrowing the money. This led to a money laundering case being registered against the accused.
“The promoters also engaged in round-tripping of transactions to inflate the financials and booking bogus sale purchase transactions in books of accounts of the accused companies to siphon off the loan proceeds for investments in real estate properties, in collusion with the auditors of the Companies,” it said.
Earlier, ED had conducted search operations at 13 official and residential premises of Rajmal Lakhichand group in Jalgaon, Nashik, and Thane (Maharashtra) and seized gold, silver, and diamond jewellery or bullion and Indian currency in cash along with various incriminating documents.
“Search and post-search investigative findings have revealed fictitious stock or missing stock inventories of bullion and gold jewellery in books, use of shell companies, employment of dummy directors, etc.,” it added.
[With Inputs from IANS]
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