Jewellers Held in Hyderabad For 'Laundering' Rs 100 Cr of Old Notes

Hyderabad: Directors of a Prominent city jewellery firm were arrested on Wednesday for laundering Rs 100 crore of demonetised currency by selling gold to fictitious customers on the night of November 8.

The case has been booked against all the directors- Kailash Chand Gupta, Nitin Gupta and Nikhil Gupta of Musaddilal Jewellers Pvt Ltd at Banjara Hills along with two other firms.

Police said that following the announcement of demonetization of Rs 500 and 1000 currency notes on November 8, Kailash along with his sons Nitin and Nikhil, daughter-in-law Neha Gupta and others hatched a plan to convert black money with them by depositing them on fake and fabricated receipts.

Accordingly, the accused generated fake advance payment receipts for Rs. 57.85 crore on the name of Musaddilal Gems and Jewellers Pvt. Ltd., purportedly acquired from 3100 customers and Rs 40 crores on the name of Vaishnavi Bullion Private Limited for 2100 customers. All the receipts were shown to have received between 9 PM and midnight on November 8 and the amounts deposited at SBI, Panjagutta Branch and Axis Bank, Banjara Hills Branch respectively.

Some of the receipts are on the names of the fictitious customers belonging to other states which clearly reveals that the receipts are fake and fabricated, police said. When enquired, one such customer disclosed that she had never purchased any item or visited the accused either on November 8 or earlier and thereafter her signature / handwriting on the receipts were false. She said she had only two notes of Rs. 500 on the day when demonetization was announced.

Kailash and other accused manipulated the relevant records of Registrar of Companies with antedates to change the names of the directors.

Police said Naredi Narender Kumar is brother-in-law of Kailash. On the date of demonetization, he assembled with other accused and abetted them in commission of the offence. Consequent to the IT raids on the residence of the accused and registering of criminal case against them, Kumar harboured Kailash at his residence located at Manikonda and at his factory at Auto Nagar, concealing the his whereabouts to evade arrest.