The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a supplementary charge sheet against Kailash Gupta, Nitin Gupta, Nikhil Gupta and their company Musaddilal Jewellers Private Ltd and several others in connection with its money laundering probe for depositing Rs 111 crore immediately after the announcement of demonetisation in November 2016.
An ED official said that the financial probe agency filed the charge sheet on Monday after extensive investigation, against the main accused Kailash Gupta, Nitin Gupta, and Nikhil Gupta and their firms Musaddilal Gems and Jewellery, Musaddilal Jewellers Pvt Ltd and Vaishnavi Bullion Ltd, their chartered accountants, gold bullion dealers, and also the major contributors of the black money, who were involved in this fraud.
A total of 41 entities and individuals have been charged with the offence of money laundering, as they knowingly deposited money into the bank accounts of Musaddilal Group to claim the same as untainted money, converted the same into gold bullion and sold this for profit.
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The official said that the financial probe agency registered a case of money laundering against Musaddilal Gems and Jewels Private Ltd, Vaishnavi Bullion Private Ltd, Musaddilal Jewellers Private Ltd and others on the basis of an FIR registered by Telangana Police.
He said that the ED probe revealed that the accused used demonetisation scheme to "bleach" their unaccounted black money into white money and also to earn windfall profits.
"They blatantly created around 5,911 fictitious sale invoices attributing fake sales during the short relaxation period between 8 p.m. to 12 p.m. on November 8, 2016 and deposited a whooping amount of Rs 111 crore in their bank accounts," the official said, adding that a major part of deposited black money belonged to the main accused and his family members and remaining was solicited from others on commission basis.
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"The accused used a part of the amount to repay their loans, pay due taxes and used the remaining amount to buy gold. This gold was further sold at a very high rate to earn even more profits," he said.
The official said that the agency has done extensive fund trail investigation and found that the total proceeds of crime generated in this scam amounted to Rs 139 crore.
The ED has earlier attached properties worth Rs 130 crore on February 1, 2021, which included jewellery worth Rs 86 crore, seized during the searches it conducted, and earlier filed two charge sheets in the case against 13 individual and entities.
