HYDERABAD: Justice Shameem Akhtar of Telangana High Court on Tuesday refused to quash the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against Sukesh Gupta, a director of MBS Jewellers.
The court made it clear that in view of the material available on record, continuation of proceedings against the petitioner would not amount to abuse of the process of law. “In the interest of justice also, the proceedings against the petitioner in the subject ECIR cannot be quashed. No grounds, much less valid grounds, are made out by the petitioner to quash the complaint,” Justice Akhtar said.
He, however, said that the criminal petition was devoid of merit and is liable to be dismissed. Sukesh Gupta faces charges of receiving gold from the Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation (MMTC) on the basis of ‘buyers credit’ by keeping the forex position open, without paying the additional 5 per cent margin.
The ED said that Sukesh Gupta gave a letter to the MMTC asking them to keep the forex open and received the gold knowing that there are outstanding dues, in connivance with public servants. He also gave cheques for Rs 10 crore for resumption of business knowing that there was no balance in his bank account for receiving the gold; his company dues were paid by public servants using the MMTC funds / Fixed Deposits without the approval of the corporate office of the MMTC in New Delhi, due to which, the corporation suffered exposure to the tune of Rs 220 crore, the ED said.
The ED also said that Sukesh Gupta, in active connivance with a few officials of MMTC Hyderabad, regularly lifted gold without forex cover and adequate security deposits.His dues were consistently misreported to the MMTC head office. Without squaring off the existing losses, his firms continued lifting gold from the MMTC for their personal gain and thereby caused a loss of public money to the tune of Rs 504.34 crore, including interest of Rs 277.52 crore up to May 31, 2021, the ED said.
Gupta caused loss of Rs 504.3 cr, alleges ED
Without squaring off the existing losses, Sukesh Gupta’s firms lifted gold from the MMTC for their personal gain and thereby caused a loss of public money to the tune of Rs 504.34 crore, including interest of Rs 277.52 crore up to May 31, 2021, the ED said