ED seizes Rs 149-cr jewellery stocks of Hyderabad groups, arrests director

Jewellery stocks worth more than Rs 149 crore have been seized by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after it raided Hyderabad-based two gems and jewels groups as part of a money laundering probe linked to alleged cheating with MMTC, a public sector enterprise.

The searches were launched against MBS Jewellers Pvt Ltd, Musaddilal Gems and Jewels India Pvt Ltd, and their directors Sukesh Gupta and Anurag Gupta on October 17 at five locations in Telangana’s capital city and Vijaywada in Andhra Pradesh.

The seizure includes jewellery stocks of Rs 149.10 crore and a cash amount of Rs 1.96 crore, the ED said in a statement issued on Thursday.

Sukesh Gupta was subsequently arrested by the federal agency on October 18 and a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court, a day later on October 19, sent him to 14 days judicial custody, the ED said.

The money laundering case stems from a CBI FIR and chargesheet filed against Sukesh Gupta and his companies for defrauding MMTC Limited in purchase of gold bullion under buyer’s credit scheme.

”Sukesh Gupta in active connivance with few officials of MMTC Hyderabad had continuously lifted gold without forex cover and without adequate security deposits and his dues were consistently misreported to the MMTC head office and without squaring off the existing losses, his firms continued lifting more and more gold from MMTC for their personal gain and this ultimately caused a loss of public money to the tune of Rs 504.34 crore to the MMTC,” the agency said.

Sukesh Gupta, it said, ”colluded” with various officers of MMTC Hyderabad and painted a wrong picture of his account and kept on lifting gold to carry on its business as usual and MMTC ultimately suffered a ”massive” loss. He also entered into an OTS (one time settlement) with MMTC in 2019. However, MMTC confirmed that Sukesh Gupta did not comply the OTS conditions and the OTS has failed, the ED said.