MUMBAI: The enforcement directorate (ED), probing money laundering angle in a bank fraud case, on Friday has provisionally attached 70 immovable properties located at five locations in Maharashtra and moveable assets such as silver and diamond jewellery etc collectively valued at Rs 315.6 crore.
The assets provisionally attached by the ED are located in Jalgaon, Mumbai, Thane, Sillod and Kutch among other areas. Moreover, movable assets like windmills, silver and diamond jewellery, bullion and Indian currency were also attached. The attachment comes in a bank fraud case of M/s Rajmal Lakhichand Jewelers Pvt. Ltd., M/s R L Gold Pvt. Ltd., and M/s Manraj Jewelers Pvt. Ltd and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The attached assets include the benami properties acquired by the promoters Ishwarlal Shankarlal Jain Lalwani, Manish Ishwarlal Jain Lalwani and others.
ED had initiated investigations based on three FIRs which were registered by the CBI under various IPC sections alleging that the companies and its directors/ 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.
During the probe, ED found that the promoters had submitted fake financials to avail such loans. 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.
Earlier, ED had conducted search operations at 13 official and residential premises of Rajmal Lakhichand group in Jalgaon, Nashik and Thane and seized gold, silver and diamond jewellery/ bullion and Indian currency in cash along with various incriminating documents. Investigative findings revealed fictitious stock/ missing stock inventories of bullion and gold jewellery in books, use of shell Companies, employment of dummy directors etc.
