Hyderabad: Hyderabad-based jeweller Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, who was absconding for the past six months in connection with a gold smuggling case, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in Mumbai. Later, the accused was shifted to Kolkata for judicial remand.
According to officials, they nabbed Ghanshyamdas Jewellery owner and the key accused in Rs 100 crore gold smuggling case Sanjay Kumar Agarwal at Aamby Valley in Maharashtra's Lonavala while he was attending a wedding there. On a tip off, a team of ED kept close vigil on the movements of Sanjay Agarwal and arrested him on Monday. The ED officials executed a non-bailable warrant following the arrest of Sanjay Agarwal.
A few days ago, the ED officials arrested Sanjay Kumar's son Preet Kumar Agarwal in the case. The Kolkata court issued non-bailable warrants against the accused Sanjay Agarwal, Radhika Agarwal, Ajay Kumar Agarwal and Avinash Soni.
The ED officials registered cases on Sanjay Agarwal and others following the incident of gold smuggling to Kolkata from Dubai. Initially, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials found that the accused indulged in smuggling gold to the private market without paying duty taxes. Sanjay Agarwal had played a key role in Rs 100 crore gold smuggling scam.
The ED officials also attached the properties of the accused located in Hyderabad and other places worth Rs 25 crore and seized Rs 50 lakh cash from his bank accounts. Sanjay Agarwal used to run a gold business in the name of Ghanshyamdas Gems and Jewels located at Abids.
In 2012, the CBI registered cases against Sanjay Agarwal for duping SBI by getting loan under gold metal loan scheme by submitting fake documents as security. After duping the bank, Sanjay Agarwal ran away to Bangalore. The CBI nabbed the accused in Bangalore and seized Rs 9 crore property from him.
