DRI: Rs 200 crore forex fraud plot hatched at a bar in Thane

MUMBAI: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials probing the Rs 200 crore currency declaration form (CDF) scam, said that the conspiracy was hatched at a Thane bar early this year. Ashok Purswani (55), branch manager of Union Bank of India, who arrested on Friday in this case had participated in several such meetings.

The DRI is probing a case of exporters fraudulently availing the facility of drawback. When foreign currency is deposited in a bank by exporters, they fill up CDFs and get drawbacks (as reward) from the government for bringing forex in India.

Purswani was arrested along with Aamil Fruitwala, director of AN Forex Pvt Ltd. DRI sources said they recorded Purswani's statement on five occasions under the Customs Act. Purswani has admitted to have met two agents at Twins Bar in Thane, where they offered him Rs 0.10 for per US dollar deposit in his bank's branch. During the subsequent meetings, the agents asked him that he should also take deposit of more firms to earn more commission.

Purswani has also confessed that Hiten Haria, another exporter arrested in this case, had approached him directly for deposit of foreign currency under CDFs for Ashapura Clothing Pvt Ltd., M/s Ashapura Texfab Pvt Ltd and M/s Ashapura Exports. Purswani received Rs 3 lakh from Haria for the facilitation. Purswani admitted to have earned a Rs 18 lakh in commissions.

"They would not actually deposit foreign currency. Everything was fake. Fruitwala had a different modus operandi. He would buy copies of passports of genuine travellers and fill the CDFs using these details. He would pretend he had received the foreign currency from the travellers. We recovered passport copies of several people. Not a single of them has said they sold or gave foreign currency to Fruitwala," said a senior official.

The DRI is trying to find out who supplied the passport copies to Fruitwala. "He paid Rs 10 for each copy of a genuine passport," said the official, adding that this is a dangerous modus operandi where a traveller's passport details were sold for just Rs 10. DRI officials said that during February and July this year, false information on CDFs were submitted to Union bank of India branch where the exporters claimed to have deposited Rs 200 crore.