CBI Court Convicts Private Company and Two Directors in Criminal Conspiracy and Cheating Case:

The CBI Court in Ahmedabad has convicted M/s Kushal Diamonds Ltd. and its directors Bakul Zaveri and Mazhar S. Kapadia in a case involving criminal conspiracy and cheating.

The court has imposed a fine of Rs. 30 lakh on Kushal Diamonds Ltd. Bakul Zaveri and Mazhar S. Kapadia have each been sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) and fined Rs. 30 lakh.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered the case on March 15, 2000, against officials of the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), Ahmedabad, and directors of Kushal Diamonds.

According to the CBI investigation, NSIC had provided financial assistance of around Rs. 2.35 crore to Kushal Diamonds under its Bill Discounting Facility and Raw Material Assistance Scheme.

The investigation found that around Rs. 1.35 crore was adjusted or recovered through various payments. However, an amount of about Rs. 99.96 lakh remained outstanding as of March 31, 1996, causing a wrongful loss to NSIC.

After completing the investigation, the CBI filed a chargesheet on January 8, 2002, against eight accused. They included Kushal Diamonds Ltd., its three directors Bakul Zaveri, Mazhar S. Kapadia and Subhash Chhanana and four NSIC officials.

After a lengthy trial, the court convicted Kushal Diamonds Ltd., Zaveri and Kapadia. However, the four NSIC officials Virendra Kumar Sawhney, Rohit Dhingra, Ram Avatar Agarwal and Rajesh Arora were acquitted of the charges.

One of the accused, Subhash Chhanana, died during the trial. Following his death, the case against him was closed by the court.