Summary
ED accused Afroz Fatta of violating FEMA in Rs 5,000-cr deal.
Till the Enforcement Directorate knocked on his door a month before polls in Gujarat, Afroz Hassan Fatta, 50, was just another businessman dealing in grey bales, real estate and diamonds. And he loved to take pictures with politicians. So, he figures in photos featuring businessmen like Zafar Sareshwala, and with BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi.
Fatta came under the ED scanner after transactions worth Rs 5,000 crore were suspected to have taken place in January and February from purported diamond trading firms run by him in Surat, with foreign banks.
He came into the spotlight recently after the Congress put out photos of him with Modi and the BJP retorted with pictures of him and Congress candidate Mohammad Azharuddin. Fatta faces charges of having forged nine diamond trading companies registered in Surat, which existed only on paper. Fatta and his partner, Madan Lal Jain, forged bills of entry in the bank (a leading private bank is in the radar) to show diamonds imported from various countries. On the basis of these fake bills of entry, banks transferred money abroad. The ED, which began with investigations into a Rs 700 crore hawala racket, found nearly Rs 5,000 crore was sent to banks, mostly in Hong Kong and the UAE, in violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act. The addresses given to these banks were found to be fake.
Fatta’s partner Jain has been absconding. Fatta’s personal assets rose phenomenally since he took over his father Hassan Fatta’s business of grey bales. He owns a plush home in Surat, a flat in Mumbai and also bought a flat in Dubai.
Fatta was born in Rajkot. After Class X, he worked in a textile merchant’s firm in Surat. From a small home in Udhna area, Fatta’s family — wife, two daughters and a son — live in Halima palace in upmarket Adajan Patia, which was raided by the ED. He expanded his textile business to Bhiwandi and soon entered the international market.
A week after the ED raids, two bike-borne men shot at Amjad Dalal, a friend of Fatta, in Adajan area of Surat. Probe traced the shootout to don Babloo Srivastava, who is in a UP jail. On April 10, Fatta found an envelope at his Mumbai home, containing six bullets, an underworld sign that he was a target. He is suspected to be linked to Chhota Shakeel.
When contacted, Fatta said, “I am too small to get connected with Narendra Modi. I never met him in person, but it was always group meeting of minority community.”
Fatta’s journey: From a small house to Halima palace, global textile market
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