Musaddilal firm charged with money laundering
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has proceeded against the management of Musaddilal Jewellers by registering a case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
​Hyderabad: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has proceeded against the management of Musaddilal Jewellers by registering a case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Nearly Rs 100-crore fraud committed by Musaddilal Jewellers came to light on a case filed by the Income Tax authorities with the Central Crime Station (CCS) of Hyderabad city police on December 7. The ED has been closely monitoring the case.
The Income Tax officials had filed the case after it was found that the management of Musaddilal Jewelers had created 5,200 advance receipts in the names of fictitious customers to show that gold worth Rs 97.85 crore was sold in just three hours after the Union government announced demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes on November 8.
During investigations, CCS sleuths found that the receipts were created to legitimise the black money already in store with the management – managing director Kailash Chand Gupta, his sons and directors Nikhil Gupta, Nitin Gupta and others.
This was done with just two employees in each outlet, one among them being the director himself. Even if it is considered that an expert cashier can generate four receipts in a minute at a speed of one receipt for 15 seconds, all the four employees of the two outlets owned by Musaddilal Jewellers could have generated 960 receipts in three hours.
But in this case they claimed to have generated 5,200 receipts. Further, the Guptas managed to get hold of the identity cards of fictitious customers, including Aadhaar cards.
These identity cards were used to show that customers from places as far as Bengaluru, Mumbai and even Delhi landed in Hyderabad within a couple of hours after the announcement of demonetization and purchased jewellery from Musaddilal stores.
Sleuths also found that the Guptas had created a receipt even in the name of a woman who never visited any of the Musaddilal stores and who had only two currency notes of Rs 500 denomination on the day when they were demonetised.
