Gitanjali gems successfully completed its take over of Nakshatra Diamonds. Gitanjali now plans to make it a jewellery and lifestyle brand.
"To support our massive retail activities, we plan to have our own textile brands - three women's wear brands, one men's wear and one kid's wear - in the next six months," says Deepak Tulsian, vice president, retail, of Gitanjali Gems.
The Enforcement Directorate has attached assets worth over Rs 14 crore belonging to the Gitanjali Group and its promoter and jeweller Mehul Choksi, one of the prime accused in the alleged over Rs 13,000 crore PNB loan fraud case. The properties attached, under the anti-money laundering law, include a flat measuring 1,460 sq feet located at O2 Tower in Goregaon area of Mumbai, gold and platinum jewellery, diamond stones, necklaces made of silver and pearls, watches and a Mercedes Benz car, the ED said in a statement. A provisional order for attachment has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for the assets worth a total Rs 14.45 crore that are in the name of Gitanjali Group of companies and its director Mehul Choksi, it said.
Vipul Chitalia was apprehended at Mumbai airport and brought to the CBI office at the Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai for questioning, he said, but did not divulge any other details about Chitalia's alleged role in the PNB fraud.
Gitanjali Group, the Rs 4,500-crore (Rs 45 billion) diamond-studded jewellery manufacturing firm, has evinced interest in setting up a special economic zone (SEZ) for diamond processing industry near Bangalore.
The bail plea of fugitive diamonds trader Mehul Choksi, wanted in India in connection with over Rs 6300-crore fraud in the Punjab National Bank (PNB), has again been turned down by a court of appeal in Belgium, just ahead of his extradition hearing before a court in that country, officials said. The court rejected the appeal on strong reasons conveyed by the CBI to the Belgian prosecution that Choksi had escaped from many jurisdictions earlier as well to evade legal proceedings and may flee to another country if let out on bail, they said.
Once a stock market darling, the jewellery chain heads for liquidation.
The government had moved NCLT to freeze the assets of 19 people after CBI filed a charge sheet in Nirav Modi's case and Gitanjali Group cases.
She was the managing director and the CEO of PNB since August 14, 2015 before being appointed in Allahabad Bank on May 6, 2017.
'We want the government to provide job security for all these workers,' says E S N Reddy, district general secretary of CITU.
After taking action against 226,000 shell companies last year, the ministry of corporate affairs has now zeroed in on a fresh batch of suspected shell companies.
The I-T department also attached 34 bank accounts and fixed deposits, valued at Rs 1.45 crore, of the Gitanjali group.
The jewellers and companies linked to Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi had allegedly colluded with PNB officers to obtain fake bank guarantees to get loan from overseas branches of Indian banks including Allahabad Bank, Axis Bank and UCO Bank.
Thousands of unlisted companies registered with RoCs will soon go under watch on lines similar to the oversight by the Securities and Exchange Board of India of listed companies.
Sebi on Thursday sent a notice to fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi asking him to pay Rs 5.35 crore in a case pertaining to fraudulent trading in the shares of Gitanjali Gems Ltd and warned of arrest and attachment of assets as well as bank accounts if he fails to make the payment within 15 days. The demand notice came after Choksi failed to pay a fine imposed on him by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). Choksi, who was the chairman and managing director as well as part of promoter group of Gitanjali Gems, is the maternal uncle of Nirav Modi.
All these companies were provided loans by PNB as part of consortium lending.
Markets regulator Sebi has ordered the attachment of bank accounts and shares and mutual fund holdings of fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi to recover dues totalling Rs 5.35 crore. The latest decision has been taken after Choksi failed to pay the fine imposed on him in October 2022 by Sebi in a case pertaining to indulging in fraudulent trading in the shares of Gitanjali Gems Ltd. Choksi, who was the chairman and managing director as well as part of the promoter group of Gitanjali Gems, is the maternal uncle of Nirav Modi, both of whom are facing charges of defrauding state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) of more than Rs 14,000 crore.
Modi has been relentless in building his brand regardless of banks having a problem of fraudulent and unauthorised transactions with his companies.
The agency on Friday also carried out searches on the premises of the Gitanjali Group at 20 places in Mumbai, Pune, Surat, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Coimbatore.
The jeweller, who had left the country before Punjab National Bank approached the CBI with complaint against him and Nirav Modi, said the media continued to conduct a trial by itself blowing each and every issue out of proportion.
The chargesheet, filed in a special court in Mumbai, also names several other top officials of the bank.
Precious ornaments are estimated to become 3% costlier under GST
Given how everything has played out, Mehul Choksi, now 62, achieved all that he wanted but for all the wrong reasons, says Pavan Lall.
Companies owned by fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi have allegedly siphoned off over Rs 6,344.96 crore from the Punjab National Bank (PNB) using fraudulent letters of undertaking and foreign letters of credit, a CBI investigation into the scam has detected. The findings were submitted by the CBI in a supplementary chargesheet filed before a special court in Mumbai last week, where the agency said the PNB was conned by its employees who were allegedly hand in gloves with Choksi and his company executives and who facilitated the scam as part of a criminal conspiracy. The PNB officials at the bank's Brady House branch in Mumbai issued 165 letters of undertaking (LoUs) and 58 foreign letters of credit (FLCs) during March-April 2017, against which 311 bills were discounted.
Building a global brand was Choksi's idea, which Modi borrowed from him.
The Income Tax Department on Tuesday also raided 20 premises linked to Gitanjali Gems promoter Mehul Choksi and suspected shell firms in connection with an alleged tax evasion case against them, official sources said.
As its backyard remains embroiled in tension, Gurugram is exercising caution.
The government has given sanction for prosecution against PNB executive director Sanjiv Sharan as part of the clean up exercise in the system.
Nirmala Sitharaman said Nirav Modi may have been able to run away from the country, but the government is taking action against him, and claimed that it will "surely nab him".
PNB issued a formal appointment letter to Belgium-based consultancy firm BDO
According to a complaint from Bank of Baroda, the conspirators allegedly cheated a consortium of bank loans of Rs 3,695 crore. The scam was earlier estimated at around Rs 800 crore.
'I was shocked by the kidnapping episode. I could have lost my life.'
The common denominator: They were predominantly Gujarati, mostly male, and either related by blood or very well-known to Nirav.
The agency has written to the Interpol to issue a Red Corner Notice which would mean that the member countries of the Lyon-based international police cooperation agency can arrest and extradite Nirav Modi
"Our preliminary estimates show we may have to provide for around Rs 60 billion in the balance sheet for the quarter ending on March. The due date for LoUs amounting to Rs 60 billion is falling in the present quarter. This will be a contingent liability for the bank," said a senior executive, on condition of anonymity.
Rajan said it is hard to offer an objective self-assessment but the RBI should probably have raised more flags about the quality of lending in the early days of banking exuberance.
The CBI on Wednesday directed him to contact the embassy of India in a country where he is staying so that his travel to India can be arranged
Gokulnath Shetty, then deputy manager (now retired), Manoj Kharat, a single window operator of PNB, and Hemant Bhat were taken into custody by the agency
The 91.9 per cent slide in the stock price of Gitanjali Gems since April has depleted the value of promoter Mehul Choksi's holding in the company by at least Rs 17 crore (Rs 170 million) a day on an average.
