NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) restituted five attached immovable properties to Punjab National Bank (PNB) in a major money laundering case involving Ghanshyamdas Gems and Jewels and its Managing Partner, Sanjay Agarwal.
The properties, originally valued at approximately Rs 2.55 crore at the time of FIR in October 2011, now carry a market value of around Rs 16 crore.
The attached immovable properties for which restitution has been allowed by the Court include a plot and agricultural lands located in the districts of Ranga Reddy and Medak in Telangana.
The present market value of the restituted properties is Rs 16 crore.
ED initiated an investigation based on an FIR registered by the CBI in Bangalore against Ghanshyamdas Gems & Jewels and its partners for fraudulently inducing SBI into releasing 250 kg of gold on the strength of forged bank guarantees submitted by Sanjay Agarwal, purportedly issued by PNB.
During the probe, the agency found that when the information about the incident surfaced in the public, Agarwal and his brothers, Ajay Kumar and Vinay Kumar, removed the entire stock of gold from their shop situated at Abids, Hyderabad, and sold it off in the local market for cash.
This stock was mortgaged to PNB. The proceeds of crime so generated by them were later invested in a new firm opened in December 2012 by Sanjay Agarwal in his wife's name.
Later, he also opened three more firms in the names of his brothers and one of his employees.
Substantial unexplained cash deposits were found in multiple bank accounts opened in the names of his family members and firms controlled by him.
Moreover, the investigation revealed that Agarwal had obtained a passport under a fake identity of 'Srikanth Gupta' and travelled abroad several times and opened multiple bank accounts for layering his money.
The money trail further led the ED officials to a benami property acquired in the name of one of his employees, Avinash Soni.
Earlier, ED had arrested Sanjay Agarwal on February 11, 2022, and provisionally attached nine immovable properties belonging to Agarwal, his family members and benamis.
A prosecution complaint in the case was filed by ED on April 11, 2022.
The PNB was urged to file a restitution application before the Court at Nampally in Hyderabad, and ED conveyed concurrence for restitution of immovable properties attached by it so that such attached properties could be restored to the Punjab National Bank.