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Hyderabad: High Court denies relief to Musaddilal

Jewellers were booked for money laundering by Enforcement Directorate.

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Saturday rejected the pleas of Hyderabad based jewellers — Musaddilal Group managing director and other directors — to quash further proceedings with respect to the summons issued by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED).

The vacation court comprising Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili was dealing with the petition filed by Musaddilal Group MD Kailash Chand Gupta and his two sons Nitin Gupta and Nikhil Gupta, directors of Musaddilal Gems and Musaddilal Jewels respectively, seeking to quash the summons issued by the ED on May 3, 2019, directing them to appear before the ED regarding the case lodged against them under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The Hyderabad regional ED authorities had filed the case against the Musaddilal owners, who were accused of depositing around Rs 100 crore cash from undisclosed sources during demonetisation in various bank accounts.

On April 15, 2019, the ED authorities seized around Rs 82 crore worth of property owned by the group. For further investigation, the authorities issued summons to the petitioners to appear before him.

Counsel for the petitioners, Mr Chandrasen Reddy, requested the court to grant a stay on all consequential proceedings related to the summons. The Assistant Solicitor General of India, Mr Lakshman, submitted that further inquiry was necessary as the ED had found that Musaddilal jewellers had created fake invoices in the names of 5,200 people on the day of demonetisation.

The company had filed a separate petition on April 17, challenging the seizure of the property. The High Court rejected the pleas of the petitioners to stay all further proceedings against the summons issued to them and adjourned the case to June 12.

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