ED raids six Gitanjali stores in Kolkata

Kolkata Feb 18 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate conducted search operations in six franchise-based outlets of Gitanjali Gems located in four malls here in connection with $1.8 billion banking fraud case an official said on Sunday.

"Several teams are searching in six franchised outlets of Gitanjali Gems located in four malls in connection with the banking fraud case " an ED official said.

The searches in the city-based outlets of jewellery house were part of a pan-India operation that the agency on Sunday conducted at over 45 more locations in 15 cities across India in connection with the multi-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam.

The central agency on Friday and Saturday had also conducted raids at 35 and 21 locations across India respectively in connection with the fraud involving around Rs 11 300 crore and has seized diamonds gold and jewellery worth Rs 5 674 crore.

The investigating agency had also raided another franchise-based store of the jewellery house owned by Mehul Choksi in West Bengal s Durgapur on Saturday as Choksi s name had come up in the case.

Punjab National Bank the second largest public sector bank in India had detected the $1.8 billion fraud in one of its branches in Mumbai.

--IANS
bdc/vd