Mehul Choksi loan case: CBI court sets aside magistrate's order

A special CBI court here on Saturday set aside a magistrates order taking of cognisance of the chargesheet filed against fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi in a loan fraud case amounting to more than Rs 22 croreThe special judge remanded matter back to the magistrate for a fresh order on consideration of the chargesheetThe metropolitan magistrate Esplanade court had taken cognisance of a chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI against Choksi and the other accused in the case in March this yearHowever Choksi and coaccused Aniyath Nair moved a review application before the CBI court saying no case was made out against themIn a plea filed through advocates Vijay Agarwal and Rahul Agarwal the accused claimed that the trial magistrate court failed to appreciate that documents filed by the CBI in support of its case were inadmissible evidence and cognisance taken based on such documents was bad in lawThe probe agency had registered an FIR against the accused in April 2022 on the basis of complaint lodged by Industrial Finance Corporation of India IFCI LtdThe accused have been booked under the Indian Penal Code for cheating and criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption ActThe CBI has alleged that Choksi and the other accused during the period from 20142018 were party to a criminal conspiracy to cheat IFCIAs part of the conspiracy Choksis firm Gitanjali Gems Limited GGL approached IFCI for financial assistance of Rs 25 crore in March 2016Choksi allegedly pledged jewels worth double the loan amount after due valuation by governmentapproved valuers and IFCI disbursed the entire loan amount of Rs 25 crore based on the security of the pledged jewellery and sharesAs per the FIR when GGL started defaulting on its repayments IFCI invoked the pledged shares but could recover only a little more than Rs 4 croreIn order to realise the security IFCI conducted a fresh valuation of the pledged jewels which showed their valuation had dropped by 98 per centIFCI has alleged that Choksi colluded with the valuers and got the valuation inflated It also claimed that the pledged diamonds were low quality labmade chemical vapour stones and other inferior coloured stones not the real ones thus leading to a wrongful loss of more than Rs 2249 croreThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever