Musaddilal Gem's promoter Sukesh Gupta,MMTC officials cheated public Rs 504 Cr: ED

Hyderabad: Sleuths of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seized jewellery worth Rs. 149 crores and cash worth Rs. 1.96 cores from MBS Jewellers Private Limited and Musaddilal Gems & Jewels India Private Limited.

ED carried out raids against Musaddilal Gem's promoters Sukesh Gupta and Anurag Gupta on 17 October at five locations in Hyderabad and Vijayawada. The raids resulted in the arrest of Sukesh Gupta, who was later produced before the Special PMLA court at Nampally, Hyderabad on 19 October and sent to 14-days judicial custody.

What did the ED investigation reveal?

The sleuths of the Enforcement Directorate took up the investigation based on an FIR registered by the CBI, ACB, Hyderabad against Sukesh Gupta and his companies for defrauding MMTC Limited (a public sector enterprise) in the purchase of gold bullion under the Buyer's Credit Scheme.

According to the FIR, Sukesh Gupta, in active connivance with a few officials of MMTC Hyderabad, continuously lifted gold without forex cover and without adequate security deposits, and his dues were consistently misreported to the MMTC head office. Also, without squaring off the existing losses, his firms continued lifting more gold from MMTC for their personal gain. This resulted in a loss of public money to the tune of Rs. 504.34 crores to MMTC.

After the fraud blew up, the CBI filed a charge sheet against Sukesh Gupta and others. The case files were handed over to ED.

During its investigation, ED found that Sukesh Gupta colluded with various officials of MMTC Hyderabad and painted a wrong picture of his account and kept lifting more gold to carry on its business as usual, and MMTC ultimately suffered a massive loss. Sukesh Gupta also entered into an OTS (one-time settlement) with MMTC in 2019.

However, MMTC confirmed that Sukesh Gupta did not comply with the OTS conditions and the OTS failed.