Hyderabad: ED takes MBS Jewels director into custody

Hyderabad: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday took MBS Jewels director Sukesh Gupta into custody from Chanchalguda jail and shifted him to the ED office.

As part of the investigation, the ED officials, trying to get answers from Sukesh on the loans taken from SREI Finance and the gold purchased from MMTC, questioned him for nine days.

The money laundering case stems from a CBI FIR and chargesheet filed against Sukesh and his companies for defrauding MMTC Limited in purchase of gold bullion under the buyer's credit scheme.

According to the ED officials, Sukesh Gupta in active connivance with few officials of MMTC Hyderabad continuously lifted gold without forex cover and adequate security deposits. His dues were consistently misreported to the MMTC head office and without squaring off the existing losses, his firms continued lifting more and more gold from MMTC for their personal gain, ultimately causing a loss of public money to the tune of Rs 504.34 crore to MMTC.

Moreover, Sukesh Gupta colluded with various officers of MMTC Hyderabad and painted a wrong picture of his account and kept on lifting gold to carry on his business as usual and MMTC ultimately suffered a massive loss.

The ED officials said that he also entered into a One Time Settlement (OTS) with MMTC in 2019. "However, MMTC confirmed that Sukesh did not comply with the OTS conditions leading to its failure", they added.