13 jewellers A/cs frozen

The CCS here has frozen 13 bank accounts of jewellers and bullion merchants, including that of the firms owned by Nitin Gupta of Musaddilal Jewellers, after teams detected unspecified instances of gold being purchased and money transferred into these accounts.

CCS officials said that the accounts of Ashthalakshmi Gold, SK Impex, Sri Balaji and Caps Gold were among those frozen, wherein money pertaining to `100 crore gold sales had been deposited. Investigations showed that Mr Gupta’s three firms have sold around 340 kg of gold on November 8 within hours after the demonetisation was announced. The CCS is recording statements of the witnesses and the accused in the case under Sec. 164 CrPC, and would issue notices to Mr Gupta and the other accused.

The CCS here has frozen 13 bank accounts of jewellers and bullion merchants, including that of the firms owned by Nitin Gupta of Musaddilal Jewellers.

A CCS official said, “Only Ashtalakshmi Gold has dealt with around `30 crore money regarding Musaddilal Jewellers. This company is owned by relatives of Mr Gupta. One Nisha Gupta had deposited the old currency in the bank account and the same has been transferred to Ashtalakshmi Gold.”

Investigations found that Mr Gupta had appointed accountant S. Mallesh as director of Musaddilal Gems and Jewellers Private Limited, another company in question. “We are verifying whether the appointment was done on October 1, 2016, as claimed by Mr Gupta, or after demonetisation,” a tax official said.

Each of the customers numbering about 5,400, all of them suspected to be fictitious, had purchased `1.89 lakh worth of gold. CCS would seek the help of the I-T department to retrieve the CCTV images for tests at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory here regarding the deposits made at the banks as well as of customers visiting the shop.

SK Impex owner Surender Jain said they had purchased gold from MMTC, STC and Indus-Ind Bank and sold Mr Gupta’s Musaddilal Jewellers. “He had transferred the money through RTGS. My account has been frozen. When I asked my bank, they said the central bank had given instructions.”

Caps Gold director and Ms Nisha Gupta would not comment.