The CBI has registered a fresh case against fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi and his firm Gitanjali Gems Ltd., valuers Surajmal Lallu Bhai & Co, Narendra Jhaveri, Pradip C Shah, Shrenik R Shah and others for causing a loss of Rs 22.06 crore to IFCI Ltd by inflating the value of diamonds and jewellery pledged to get a loan of Rs 25 crore, and conducted searches at several locations.
Choksi is wanted along with his nephew Nirav Modi in the PNB loan fraud case of Rs 13,500 crore.
It was alleged that during the period 2014 to 2018, Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI) Ltd, relying on the representation, assurances and undertaking of Gitanjali Gems Ltd. as well as its Director Mehul Choksi and the value of the pledged jewels, had disbursed the entire loan amount of Rs 25 crore to the accused firm.
The firm was granted the loan on the basis of security cover of two times, pledge of shares, pledge of gold, diamond and studded jewellery, the CBI said in a statement.
It was further alleged that the accused had started committing defaults in the repayment of loan installments and in order to recover the defaulted amount of the installments, IFCI Ltd invoked the pledge and the fresh valuation obtained by IFCI dropped the valuation of the pledged jewels by 90 per cent.
It was also alleged that the said Director Mehul Choksi colluded with the Valuers and got the valuation of the pledged jewels done with exorbitant and inflated value. The diamonds were allegedly of low quality and not real gemstones, the CBI said.
“Searches were conducted at around eight premises of the accused Valuers in Mumbai and Kolkata which led to recovery of incriminating documents,” the agency said.
The CBI has acted on a complaint from IFCI Ltd alleging that Choksi had approached it in 2016 seeking Rs 25 crore working capital loan for which he had pledged shares and gold and diamond jewellery.According to the valuations submitted by four different valuers, the jewellery pledged was in the range of Rs 34-45 crore on the basis of which IFCI sanctioned the loan demanded by Choksi. However, subsequent valuation by the lender pegged the value of the pledged diamond and jewellery to just 10 percent.