New Delhi: The CBI has booked absconding diamantaire Jatin Mehta in two fresh cases pertaining to an alleged loan fraud of over Rs 587.55 crore on complaints from the Bank of Maharashtra and the Union Bank of India, and carried out searches in these cases, officials said, Tuesday.
According to the complaints from the two state-run banks, Mehta allegedly cheated the Bank of Maharashtra to the tune of Rs 323.40 crore, while the Union Bank of India suffered a loss of Rs 264.15 crore, they said. On the basis of these two complaints, the CBI has registered two separate FIRs against Mehta and his company, ‘Winsome Diamonds and Jewellery’.
Others who have been named in one of the FIRs are whole-time directors Ramesh I Parikh and Ravichandran Ramasamy, independent director Harish Ratilal Mehta and Jordanian national Hathyam Salman Ali Abu Obeidah on the basis of the complaint from the Bank of Maharashtra.
In the FIR filed filed due to the complaint by Union Bank of India, the CBI has named the company, Mehta, Bombay Diamonds Company Pvt Ltd and Obeidah as accused.
The agency recently carried out searches at nine locations in three cities – Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Coimbatore – the premises of Mehta and other directors of the company named in the FIR, CBI officials said.
Mehta stepped down from the position of managing director of the company in April, 2011, and became non-executive director for strategic and policy decisions of the company. He left the country even before the banks could sniff the scam and is believed to be in the Caribbean island of St Kitts, CBI sources informed.
The company was in the business of manufacturing of plain as well as studded gold jewellery, cut and polished diamonds. It imported gold and diamonds and after finishing and converting the same into jewellery, exported it mainly to 13 overseas buyers in the UAE, represented by Obaidah, the Bank of Maharashtra said in its complaint.
PTI
