CBI books Surat financier, co-op bank manager

THE CBI has booked Surat-based millionaire financier Kishore Bhajiyawala, who was recently in news after the Income Tax department unearthed hundreds of crores of allegedly unaccounted wealth.

On Friday evening, a CBI team raided the residence and office of Bhajiyawala, and his associates, and recovered Rs 11.40 lakh cash. Sources said that a large number of documents were seized during the raids, and they are being examined. Sources said that this cash is part of what the I-T officials had seized earlier.

CBI officials said that Bhajiyawala, his two sons and a senior manager of Surat People’s Cooperative Bank, Pankaj Bhatt, have been named in the FIR. Two other names also figure in the CBI’S FIR. They have been booked under various sections of the IPC, including 419 (impersonation), 420 (cheating), 471 (forgery), to be read with Section 13.1.d of Prevention of Corruption Act.

The agency suspects that government employees helped Bhajiyawala and the others.

The FIR has been lodged based on the probe by I-T officials, who had found Rs 1.6 crore cash in new Rs 2,000 notes, besides gold and diamond jewelleries, and documents of properties said to be worth thousands of crores. I-T officials are still looking into the property documents seized from Bhajiyawala’s house and office.

According to sources in the CBI, Bhajiyawala handled money with identities of other people connected to him. “...he used to fill forms in the names of others, who would transact on his behalf. Ultimately, the money came to him,” a source said.