The Enforcement Directorate has issued a showcause notice of Rs 7,220 crore to Kolkata’s Shree Ganesh Jewellery House and its promoters for alleged illegal foreign exchange dealings done abroad, PTI reported on Monday. This is the highest-ever amount involved in a showcause notice issued till date by the investigative agency under Foreign Exchange Management Enforcement Act, officials said.
The agency said the jewellery house has been charged “for resorting to unauthorised foreign exchange dealings, holding of foreign exchange outside India and wilful siphoning off a whopping amount of Rs 7,220 crore as export proceeds”. An order was issued by the adjudicating authority of the FEMA in Kolkata, who is a special director rank officer of the ED.
The company is one of the top 100 wilful defaulters as per the Reserve Bank of India. The promoters of Shree Ganesh Jewellery House – Nilesh Parekh, Umesh Parekh and Kamlesh Parekh – are also being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence. Nilesh Parekh was arrested by the DRI in 2018.
“The investigation has also revealed that Shree Ganesh Jewellery House has huge outstanding for the foreign bills drawn on M/s Al Marhaba Trading FZC, M/s Sparkle Jewellery LLC, UAE and M/s Astha Jewellery LLC, UAE which are companies promoted by themselves,” the ED said in a statement, according to Hindustan Times. “The bank funds availed by it were ostensibly routed in the garb of export to above foreign entities and others and the proceeds against the same were parked outside India.”
The showcause notice was issued after the investigation, which was over a year long, ended.
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