ED finds Rs 1 crore cash, Rs 25 crore gold & jewellery with Sharad Pawar’s aide | Mumbai News – Times of India

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Saturday it has seized Rs 1.1 crore in cash and 39kg of gold-diamond jewellery worth Rs 25 crore during its searches on the premises of NCP’s former treasurer Ishwarlal Jain, his family and firms connected to them in a money laundering case linked to bank loans fraud. A former MP, Jain is an aide of Sharad Pawar.
The ED searched Jain’s 13 premises in Jalgaon, Nashik and Thane. It said it has recovered documents from mobile phones that indicate a FDI proposal of 50 million euros from a Luxembourg entity in the realty firm controlled by Jain’s son Manish. It has also gathered details on 60 properties valued at more than Rs 50 crore belonging to Rajmal Lakhichand Group, besides 2 benami properties in Jalgaon. ED officials said during a check of the accounts of 3 jewellery firms controlled by Jain, they had found loans were routed through a convoluted web of bogus sale-purchase deals through parties linked to Rajmal Lakhichand Group and invested in immovable properties by the promoters.
Just 40kg jewellery traced out of a stock of 1,300kg
The ED officials said an examination of the accounts of businessman Ishwarlal Jain’s three jewellery companies had revealed aweb of bogus deals with the money finally being pumped into immovable properties. “New jewellery business in the name of R L Enterprises and new investments were made in the real estate sector, car dealership and in setting up a hospital,” officials said. Last December, the CBI’s Delhi unit had registered three bank fraud FIRs against Rajmal Lakhichand Jewellers, RL Gold and Manraj Jewellers and its promoters—Jain, Manish Jain and their other family members.
The accused allegedly took a loan of Rs 353 crore from State Bank of India and defaulted on the payment. Based on these FIRs, the ED had registered a money laundering case. During the investigation, the ED claimed to have found bogus sale-purchase transactions in the books of accounts with the main holding company (Rajmal Lakhichand Jalgaon Partnership Firm). A large amount of stock in trade was found to be completely missing. Against a declared stock of more than 1,284kg of jewellery, the ED could trace only around 40kg. Thus, loans taken against this declared stock were siphoned off by showing bogus purchases of non-existent jewellery, the ED said in a press release on Saturday. The agency said the promoters had failed to produce any documents proving genuine utilisation of bank loans. In fact, they reportedly admitted that no books of accounts, ledgers, stock registers, invoices or any supportive documents were maintained for 2003-2014 (the loan disbursement period).