The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally seized 70 immovable assets situated in Jalgaon, Mumbai, Thane, Sillod, Kutch, and various other locations. Additionally, movable assets, such as windmills, silver and diamond jewellery/bullion, and Indian currency, all totalling Rs. 315.60 Crore, have been attached in connection with a bank fraud case involving M/s Rajmal Lakhichand Jewelers Pvt. Ltd., M/s R L Gold Pvt. Ltd., and M/s Manraj Jewelers Pvt. Ltd., among others. This action was taken under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, on October 13, 2023. The attached assets, both movable and immovable, encompass properties held benami by the promoters Ishwarlal Shankarlal Jain Lalwani, Manish Ishwarlal Jain Lalwani, and others.
The ED launched an investigation based on three FIRs filed by the CBI under various sections of the IPC alleging that the companies and their directors/promoters were involved in a criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, and criminal misbehaviour, resulting in a wrongful loss of more than Rs. 352.49 crore to the State Bank of India.
According to ED investigations, the promoters of (Rajmal Lakhichand Jewelers Pvt. Ltd., R L Gold Pvt. Ltd., and M/s Manraj Jewelers Pvt. Ltd., among others) provided false financials in order to obtain such loans. In collusion with the Companies’ auditors, the Promoters also engaged in round-tripping transactions to inflate the financials and booking bogus sale purchase transactions in the accused Companies’ books of accounts to siphon off loan proceeds for investments in real estate properties.
Previously, the ED searched 13 official and residential facilities of the Rajmal Lakhichand group (Rajmal Lakhichand Jewelers) in Jalgaon, Nashik, and Thane (Maharashtra) and recovered gold, silver, and diamond jewellery/bullion, as well as Indian money in cash and many incriminating papers. Investigative results have uncovered phoney stock/missing stock inventories of bullion and gold jewellery in books, the use of shell companies, the employment of dummy directors, and so on. More research is being conducted.
