Shiva Joshi, Pune
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), in a money laundering case related to bank loan fraud, reported on August 19 that during searches of the homes of Ishwarlal Jain, the former treasurer of the NCP, his family, and businesses connected to them, it had found 1.1 crore rupees in cash and 39 kilograms of gold and diamond jewelry worth 25 crore rupees.
A former MP, Jain is an aide to Sharad Pawar.
The ED searched 13 locations owned by Jain in Jalgaon, Thane, and Nashik. It claimed to have found documents on mobile devices that show a 50 million euro FDI proposal from a Luxembourg business for the real estate company run by Jain’s son, Manish. In addition, it has obtained information on two benami properties in Jalgaon and 60 properties owned by the Rajmal Lakhichand Group that are worth more than Rs 50 crore. According to ED officials, loans were invested in immovable properties by the promoters and funneled through a complicated web of fictitious sale-purchase arrangements through businesses connected to the Rajmal Lakhichand Group during a check of the accounts of three jewelry enterprises controlled by Jain.
The records of businessman Ishwarlal Jain’s three jewelry companies were examined by the ED, who said that this revealed a network of sham transactions that ultimately resulted in the money being invested in real estate.
“New jewelry businesses were opened in the name of R. L. Enterprises, and new investments were made in the real estate sector, car dealerships, and setting up a hospital,” officials said. Last December, the CBI’s Delhi unit registered three bank fraud FIRs against Rajmal Lakhichand Jewellers, RL Gold, and Manraj Jewellers and their promoters—Jain, Manish Jain, and their other family members.
According to the allegations, the accused borrowed Rs 353 crore from the State Bank of India but failed to make the payment.
The ED had filed a money laundering case based on these FIRs. The primary holding company’s (Rajmal Lakhichand Jalgaon Partnership Firm) books of accounts allegedly contained phony sale-purchase transactions, according to the ED, which claimed to have discovered them during the inquiry. A significant portion of the goods in trade were discovered to be gone entirely. Only about 40kg of the more than 1,284kg of jewelry that was declared in stock could be located by the ED. The ED stated in a news release on Saturday that loans taken against this declared stock were thus siphoned off by displaying fictitious purchases of nonexistent jewelry.