New Delhi: A Mumbai court issued non-bailable warrant against fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi in the 2022 bank fraud case. Choksi allegedly defrauded a consortium of Canara Bank and Bank of Maharashtra to the tune of ₹55.27 crore in 2022. The Esplanade metropolitan magistrate court issued the non-bailable warrant on a request by the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI). The CBI is investigating the fraud.
FIR against Bezel Jewellery (India) Private Limited and Choksi
The FIRv was registered by the CBI in 2022 against Bezel Jewellery (India) Private Limited, its directors Choksi, Chetna Jayantilal Jhaveri, Dinesh Gopaldas Bhatia and Milind Anant Limaye along with unknown public servants. The complaint was filed by the Chief General Manager of Canara Bank in July 2022.
The company allegedly entered into fraudulent transactions and defaulted on payment to the banks by siphoning off funds and diverting them. The case was transferred to the Esplanade magistrate court on April 17, by the CBI court. This was after the court found that the CBI had not implicated any public servant in its chargesheet and therefore charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act were not sustainable against private persons.
Later Choksi was apprehended in Belgium and the additional chief judicial magistrate court on April 19 issued the non-bailable warrant. This was issued following a request by the CBI. Canara Bank and Bank of Maharashtra had together sanctioned working capital limits of Rs 30 crore and Rs 25 crore respectively to Choksi’s Bezel Jewellery (India) Private Limited.
The money was reportedly sanctioned to the company to manufacture and sale of gold and diamond-studded jewellery. However instead of using it for this purpose they allegedly used the sum to repay its long-term borrowings. The chargesheet mentions that the entire foreign remittance received through export of jewellery was used to reduce the overdrawing in the cash credit account of Gitanjali Gems Pvt Ltd, another firm of Choksi.
The company repaid its long term borrowing amounting to Rs 18 crore to its parent company and also diverted another Rs 10 crore taken from Canara Bank to its parent company. The company did not buy any jewellery and thus no transactions were routed through the Canara Bank account, which had specifically been opened for business transactions, which would be made in the sale and purchase of the jewellery.
