ED freezes Rs 48 crore worth Kanishk’s manufacturing unit

CHENNAI: Enforcement Directorate (ED) has freezed Rs 48 crore worth Kanishk Gold’s manufacturing unit at Pukkathurai village in Maduranthagam taluk in Kancheepuram district on Tuesday. Joint director of ED K S V V Prasad said the assets of Kanishk Gold was frozen under Prevention of Money Laundering Act after investigation was conducted based on an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation, Bengaluru, for cheating consortium of 14 banks, with State Bank of India as a lead bank, worth `824 crore.

Kanishk Gold is engaged in manufacturing gold jewellery which is marketed under the brand name ‘KRIZZ’ at its manufacturing unit.The official said CBI had registered an FIR against Kanishk Gold following a complaint from the General Manager, State Bank of India, Chennai  alleging offences of forgery, cheating and  conspiracy against the accused. It was alleged that huge bank loans were obtained from a consortium of 14 Banks with SBI as the lead bank.

He said credit facilities are secured by the securities such as raw materials, semi-finished goods, finished goods, stores, spares, showing huge stocks. However, it was later realised that stock statements were fudged with the help of chartered accountants and on inspection by the banks in May 2017, it was found that no stocks were there and effectively all the operations had come to a standstill.During investigation, falsification of records was admitted and it was stated that the stock gap between the actual and reported to banks has risen to 3000 kg of gold by 2017, he said.

Simultaneous searches were conducted at the premises of factory, residential premises of directors, business premises of chartered accountants and certain incriminating documents were recovered. Since the land, buildings, plant and machinery available at the factory at  Pukkathurai are related to the crime, they were freezed under PMLA, he said.

Falsification of records

During investigation, falsification of records was admitted and it was stated that the stock gap between the actual and reported to banks has risen to 3000 kg of gold by 2017