Another Fraud: Directors Of Mehul Choksis Nakshatra And Gili Live In Slums, Reveals CBI Raid
Courtesy: The Times of India�| Image Credits: NewsX

Another Fraud: Directors Of Mehul Choksi's Nakshatra And Gili Live In Slums, Reveals CBI Raid

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When CBI officials decided to raid the premises of directors appointed by the companies of wanted billionaire jeweller Mehul Choksi, they were led to shabby chawls, tiny rooms with barely any amenities.

The directors are ordinary people with ordinary lives. They are normal employees or small-time investors who have been asked to sign a paper as they were given the top position in the company, as reported by The Times of India.


What are their lives like?

They were never invited to red carpet events that Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi attended. And they definitely did not benefit from the Rs 11,000 crore scam. In fact, these people don’t even have enough money to support their own families. Yet, since the scam came out in public, they have been harassed by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials.

According to The Times of India, Mirror tracked down several addresses listed in a first information report on Monday and tried to interview the owners, who are stunned at being linked to the country’s biggest bank scam. Government rules require all companies to provide their directors’ residential addresses and other details.

“My father, Dinesh Gopaldas Bhatia, is 61 and he is just a small investor. He has not committed any crime, but officials have been coming here to quiz him. Just look at our house, do you think we have cash stashed away here?” said Raunak Bhatia, pointing to their messy tenement on the third floor of Kalbadevi chawl Bhatia Niwas.

Dinesh Bhatia was offered the position of an independent director in Gili India and Nakshatra Brand in 2015. “He was asked to sign several documents and attend annual general meetings. But he never really had an active role in the companies,” Raunak said.

“They first approached my father in 2013, saying Gitanjali Gems’s turnover had exceeded a certain mark and they were looking for independent directors. My father agreed because it seemed like a big deal. The company said it would offer him Rs 2 lakh.”

They found another of the listed directors, Aniyath Shivraman Nair, who said that he was actually listed as an accountant. “He is not actually a director in the company. He is an accountant. Sometime back, company officials said they would give him the designation of a director for the purpose of documentation,” Reema, his wife said.


The Logical Indian take

In India, while the quality of living of the middle and lower-class families have been deteriorating, the rich are finding new ways of becoming wealthier. Blame games do the rounds and another party comes to power, but the situation remains the same.

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Editor : Poorbita Bagchi

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