 "Black money list: 5 facts on Rajkot-based bullion trader, Pankaj Chimanlal Lodhiya")
After much dithering, the government has finally named three Swiss bankaccount holdersin the Supreme Court. According to the affidavit submitted by the government, the three businessmen are being probed under the Income Tax Act and Money Laundering Act.
The government is said to have a list of 138 names but has told the court that it cannot reveal all the names unless “they are prosecuted in a court of law”.
The three businessmen whose names were submitted are Pradip Burman, former executive director of the Dabur group, Pankaj Chimanlal Lodhiya, a bullion trader, and Radha Timblo, director of Goa-based company Timblo Pvt Ltd.
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Here are a few facts aboutPankaj Chimanlal Lodhiya:
* Pankaj Chimanlal Lodhiya is the proprietor of Shreeji Trading Company, a bullion trading company established in 1997 based in Rajkot, Gujarat. According to the Shreeji group’s website, initially it was engaged in real estate business and then forayed into bullion trading. The website says the group was set up with help from his father Shri Chimanlal Laljibhai Lodhiya and his brother Shri Kaushik Chimanlal Lodhiya.
* There are two other companies under the group: Shreeji Ornaments Pvt Ltd, which is engaged in manufacture and trader of diamond jewellery, gold ornaments and silver articles, and Shreeji Reality, engaged in construction of residential flats.
* The company, with the long track record, is a dominant player in the Rajkot market. In bullion trading, it has branches in Ahmedabad, New Delhi, Jaipur, Raipur, Indore and Bangalore. It has plans to expand to south India, mostly in Kerala. The site notes ’trust, purity and honesty’ as the group’s motto.
* Assigning BB rating to long-term fund based bank facilities of Shreeji Trading, rating agency ICRA had said in 2011 that the long standing presence of the promoter in the jewellery business was a favourable for the company. It had also noted that the company has an “established clientele base resulting in low customer concentration risk”.
* Lodhiya denied to the mediathat he held accounts in Switzerland. He told _CNN-IBN_thatthat he has disclosed everything to the Income Tax Department. He also said he was shocked to see that his hasfigured in the list submitted by the government. He told TimesNow that he did not have any political connections.