Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has issued a Provisional Attachment Order and filed a Prosecution Complaint against M/s Ghanshyamdas Gems & Jewels and its Managing Partner Sanjay Agarwal in a case of fraudulently obtaining a gold loan from the State Bank of India using fake/forged bank guarantees and forged bank letters for diverting and misappropriating the stock of the company. Around Rs 90 crore worth of loans have been fraudulently obtained by the defendants.
The FIR dated 19.10.2011 filed by the CBI, BS&FC, Bangalore against M/s Ghanshyamdas Gems & Jewels and its partners for defrauding SBI into releasing 250 KG of metal gold on the basis of forged bank guarantees submitted by Sanjay Agarwal that were allegedly issued by PNB served as the basis for the money laundering investigation launched by the ED. When the scam was discovered, Sanjay Agarwal and his brothers Ajay Kumar and Vinay Kumar withdrew all of the gold from their store in Abids, Hyderabad, and sold it for cash at the neighbourhood market, according to an ED investigation.
PNB received a mortgage on this shares. They then put the illicit funds they had earned in a new company that Sanjay Agarwal had founded in December 2012 under the name of his wife. Later, he launched 3 other businesses under the names of his brothers and a former employee. Multiple bank accounts created in his name and the names of his family members and businesses he controlled had significant, unexplained cash transactions. Additionally, it has been discovered that Sanjay Agarwal obtained a passport under the fictitious name of “Srikanth Gupta,” travelled overseas on various occasions, and created numerous bank accounts to hide his illegally gained funds.The ED officials were further directed by the money trail to benami real estate purchased in the name of one of his employees, Avinash Soni.
Prior to his arrest, the ED had issued PAO No. 11/2022, dated 11.04.2022, which temporarily attached nine immovable assets that belonged to Sanjay Agarwal, his family, and benamis. The linked assets, which have a combined worth of Rs. 9.5 Crore, comprise agricultural property in Shamshabad and Tellapur, a piece in Raidurgam, a villa in Kompally, and a 1000 sq. yd. villa in the exclusive Jubilee Hills neighbourhood. On the same day, ED filed its first prosecution complaint with the MSJ Court in Nampally, Hyderabad, seeking to seize the attached proceeds of crime and punish the guilty parties in accordance with Section 4 of the PMLA against M/s Ghanshyamdas Gems & Jewels and its managing partner Sanjay Agarwal. The involvement of the other accused people is the subject of additional inquiry.
