ED unearths over Rs 1 cr after raids on Karimnagar, Hyderabad granite firms

NEW DELHI: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Friday conducted searches at the offices and residential premises of various granite firms in Karimnagar and Hyderabad on November 9 and 10 and unearthed unaccounted cash of Rs 1.08 crore. These searches were done to investigate and unearth evidence pertaining to FEMA violations.

“Offices and premises of Swetha Granites, Swetha Agencies, Sri Venkateshwara Granites, PSR Granites, Arvind Granites, Giriraj Shipping Agencies and their related entities were searched on Wednesday and Thursday. The above entities are exporting rough granite blocks to China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), China and other countries”, said the investigative agency in an official statement.

During the course of enquiries, it was found that exported quantity was more than the quantity on which royalty was paid and there was under-reporting of quantity while exporting. In many instances, the agency said the export proceeds were not realised in the declared bank accounts, thereby, indicating that the export proceeds were received through other than banking channels.

“During the search action, the ED search teams found and seized unaccounted cash of Rs 1.08 crore, allegedly received in hawala against exports and also seized voluminous granite dispatch data of 10 years from the quarries”, the official statement said.

During the search, the ED teams also found multiple benami bank accounts held in the name of employees of granite exporters, in which cash received against the illegal granite exports was being deposited.

The search action also led to detection of money being routed back from Chinese entities into the Indian entities in the form of hand loans without documents. These Chinese entities are owned by Li Wenhuo, whose name appeared in Panama Leaks.

“The ED investigation on illegal granite mining and FEMA violations has been initiated on the basis of report of report of Vigilance & Enforcement Department of the state government where in large-scale evasion of Seigniorage fee on granite blocks transported from the quarry lease areas of Karimnagar district to the sea ports by Railways was detected and demands for the evaded royalty were raised, but not paid by the exporters. Seigniorage means the difference between the value of currency/money and the cost of producing it,” added the statement.

Further investigations are under way. (ANI)