ED probes Surat-based firm on FEMA violation charge

The search was ordered on the basis of information that the said entities were involved in sending foreign exchange outside India on a large scale.

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday said it recently searched the premises of a Surat-based Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) firm and entities linked to it for allegedly making "suspicious" outward remittances worth Rs 2,284 crore.

The locations of Sharanam Jewels LLP, based in the Surat SEZ (special economic zone), its promoter Avadh Harshad Yagnik, Vansh Marketing, a proprietorship concern of Ashik Patel and others in Ahmedabad and Surat in Gujarat and Dhubri in Assam were searched under sections of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), the agency said in a statement.

The probe was initiated on the basis of "credible" information that the said entities were involved in sending foreign exchange outside India "on a large scale" and that they made "suspicious" outward remittances amounting to Rs 2,284 crore on account of payment towards import settlement of invoices.

The LLP firm is into import and export of gems and jewellery and in the last two years, it conducted transactions to the tune of Rs 3,700 crore, the central agency said.

"The entity, in its books of account, has shown closing stock to the tune of Rs 520 crore, however, on a physical verification, a meagre stock worth Rs 19.7 lakh was found," the ED said.

Sharanam Jewels LLP and its associate Vansh Marketing, with the help of other shell entities, provided "accommodation (hawala) entries" of more than Rs 5,000 crore to various people and entities through a web of complex transactions in the garb of imports and exports, it alleged.

The agency said it froze Rs 1.14 crore bank deposits of the searched entities during the searches.