Collector asked to lift status quo from Jyoti Ltd’s property

Vadodara: In a relief to Jyoti Ltd promoters, the enforcement directorate (ED) has decided to lift the status quo on company’s land in Sama.
Three months ago, the ED had put the property under status quo in connection with investigation of jailed industrialist Amit Bhatnagar. The ED has now written a letter to the district collector and requested to withdraw the status quo on the land sprawling 25,123 sq m.

‘Please refer to the office letter of the even number dated May 3, 2018 whereby a list of immovable properties was submitted to your office with a request to not allow for sale/transfer/gift/mortgage/alienation of these properties till further communication from the undersigned. The said list, inter-alia, contained the details of immovable property being ‘Land adm 25,123 square meters at survey number 53 (part) final plot 361 in TP scheme number 11, Sama, Vadodara of M/s Jyoti Ltd represented by Rahul Amin,’ the letter by ED stated.

‘Investigation conducted so far in this regard, does not reveal any link between the said property and the proceeds of crime of M/s Diamond Power Infrastructure Ltd. In view of the above, it is requested that the aforesaid request in respect of the sr no 5 (Rahul Amin) of the list of properties submitted to your office vide letter dated May 3,2018 may kindly be considered as withdrawn,’ stated the letter.

The property came under ED scanner after its documents were found from the office of Bhatnagar. ED put status quo on the property pending investigations.

Jyoti’s top management that was shocked with the action and approached ED officials as well as CBI. Jyoti’s management had no idea how their property’s documents ended up in the list of properties found from Bhatnagar’s place.

The management produced original papers of the property and told the investigating authorities that it doesn’t have any connection with Bhatnagar. Jyoti Ltd’s director Tejal Amin and Bhatnagar, director of Diamond Power Infrastructure Ltd (DPIL), had joined hands years ago for organizing Vadodara Marathon. But Bhatnagar later separated from Vadodara Marathon due to differences over his working style. Amin and Bhatnagar haven’t been on talking terms since then.

DPIL and its top management including Bhatnagar have been booked by the CBI for cheating various banks to the tune of Rs 2,654 crores by falsification of records, creation of false documents and forgery of records. The central probe agency had searched the corporate office of the company and residences of its directors apart from the ED that had attached DPIL’s immovable properties.