ED says 2014 Supreme Court order stopped Mehul Choksi from running coal mine: Report

Fugitive jeweller Mehul Choksi may have been running a coal mine had the Supreme Court in 2014 not scrapped the allocation of 214 coal blocks to a joint venture between Gitanjali Group of Companies and Kolkata-based EMTA Coal, according to a report by Hindustan Times.

The latest charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) revealed that the joint venture named M/s GEMTA Coalmines Ltd managed to get a contract for “development and operation” of Urma Paharitola coal block in Dumka, Jharkhand.

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As per the report, the coal mine was originally allotted by the UPA government in 2010-11 to two state-run companies, M/s Bihar State Mineral Development Corporation and M/s Jharkhand State Electricity Board. The ED charge sheet said that these companies formed a joint venture, M/s JHARBIHAR Colliery Ltd for the development and operation of the coal block and issued a tender in March 2012 seeking bids from experienced mining organizations.

The charge sheet said that the same year, three companies of Mehul Choksi’s Gitanjali Group (M/s Gitanjali Gems Ltd, Mozart Trading Pvt Ltd and Partha Gems LLP) formed a consortium with EMTA Coal Ltd and submitted their bid for the Jharkhand coal mine. The bid was successful, and a letter of intent (LoI) was issued to EMTA Coal Ltd in March 2014, according to the report.

The charge sheet stated that Upender Kumar, a director in GEMTA, revealed that the company was formed with an authorized capital investment of approximately Rs 5 crore, and its registered office was established in Kolkata. The report also stated that Choksi’s Gitanjali Group held the majority stake of 51 percent in the company, while EMTA held the other 49 percent.

“It was basically a third-party contract to GEMTA and not a direct allocation of a block to Choksi’s company,” an ED official told the publication.