Accused in ₹1,100 cr bank fraud denied plea for foreign travel

A PMLA court in Mumbai rejected the plea of Anil Chokhara, a prime accused in a fake import remittances case, to travel to Dubai for a family vacation. Chokhara is accused of submitting forged documents to fraudulently remit foreign exchange.

MUMBAI:A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court last week rejected the plea of Anil Chokhara, a prime accused in the ₹1,100 crore fake import remittances case, seeking permission to travel to Dubai for 20 days for a family vacation.

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Chokhara allegedly indulged in submitting forged import documents, bills of entry, and invoices to IndusInd Bank with the intention to fraudulently remit foreign exchange. The Bombay high court granted him bail in 2021.

A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court last week rejected Anil Chokhara’s plea seeking permission to travel to Dubai for 20 days for a family vacation. Chokhara, along with others, was arrested in 2017 for allegedly causing a wrongful loss of over ₹1,100 crore to IndusInd Bank. The Bombay high court subsequently granted him bail in 2022.

Chokhara allegedly indulged in submitting forged import documents, bills of entry, and invoices to IndusInd Bank with the intention to fraudulently remit foreign exchange.

Arvind Aghav, special public prosecutor, representing the Enforcement Directorate (ED), strongly objected to his application by contending that Ramesh Kadel, who is the kingpin of the scam, is still absconding and is presently in Dubai.

Another absconding accused Deepak Kumar was recently arrested at the Delhi Airport, returning from Dubai after attending Kadel’s marriage.

ED specifically contended that further investigations are in progress which in fact will be hampered as Kumar was absconding for a long period and Kadel has been absconding from the beginning.

M G Deshpande, special judge, held that the total proceeds of the crime (POC) involved in the case is ₹1,173.68 crore. The special judge added that Kadel is still dealing with the POC, hence, the applicant cannot be permitted to travel abroad.

It was the vehement contention of advocate Yogita Gogar for Chokhara that the applicant was granted permission to travel abroad by a metropolitan magistrate court, dealing with CBI cases. However, the court observed, “Parameters for granting such permission in CBI case and parameters for granting such permission in PMLA case are altogether different.”

In 2017, Anilkumar Mulchand Toshniwal, Sunilkumar Chokhara , and Anil Chokhara, directors of M/s. Yogeshwar Diamonds Pvt. Ltd., M/s Shree Charbhuja Diamonds Pvt. Ltd., and M/s Kanika Gems Pvt. Ltd. Respectively, allegedly hatched a criminal conspiracy and accordingly, illegally remitted Indian currency in the form of Import Advance and post-import remittances by submitting forged bills of entry to the IndusInd bank and thereby cheated the bank.

The funds were remitted to the bank accounts of the 12 Hong Kong SAR, China-based companies. It was also revealed that in 2014, M/s Yogeshwar Diamonds Pvt. Ltd and others laundered funds of $1,28,76,458.42 (around ₹106.87 crore) to one Hong Kong SAR, China-based company named M/s. Star Grace Ltd with Deepak Kumar as the director at the time.

In view of the gravity and seriousness of the offence, the court further observed that though all the activities of generation of proceeds of crime and money laundering have had basic roots in India, accused persons involved therein have committed criminal activities from China, Dubai, etc.