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EXCLUSIVE : Cobrapost Finds How Money Laundering Comes Packaged In Pan Masala ! How do you turn ~₹2,547 crore of unaccounted cash into “legitimate” money?
Eight members of the Chaurasia family, owners of the nearly ~₹3,000 Cr Kamla Pasand Group, allegedly did it by claiming the money came from selling diamonds that never existed !
The Individuals Involved Are : Navneet, Shashi Kant, Vijay Anand, Vibha Arya, Mayank, Dipti, Anand Kumar & Rajiv Chaurasia
According to the Income Tax Department's Special Investigation Wing & Benami Prohibition Unit-I, cash from off-the-book product sales was routed into banks via proxies between FY 2016-17 and FY 2020-21.
The Business Behind Kamla Pasand & Rajshree: From a roadside kiosk in Kanpur in 1973 to a ~₹3,000 crore business across Kanpur, Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai.
Publicly worth ~₹3,000 crore, but agencies say much of the real turnover stays off the books, drawing repeated tax raids.
Tax was paid at 20% to make it look legitimate.
Cobrapost Decodes the Fatal Flaw: The Diamonds Never Existed, Not a Single Carat !
Patriarch Kamla Kant Chaurasia told investigators he neither inherited diamonds from his father nor passed any to his sons — Demolishing the family's "ancestral heirloom" claims.
Cobrapost Highlights a Telling Contradiction: If the diamonds were genuinely inherited, why pay 20% LTCG instead of ~1% inheritance tax? And why declare them under an amnesty scheme at all?
Investigators viewed the duplicity as a shield against scrutiny.
Cobrapost Follows The Numbers That Don’t Add Up : ~₹318 crore of “diamonds” declared, “sold” for ~₹2,547.49 crore, and ~₹2,229.50 crore booked as capital gains.
Cobrapost Tracks a Remarkable Jump : Each member booked a “windfall” of 212% to 957% over the value declared. Polishing a real stone doesn’t multiply its value tenfold !
The order itself called the gap “unimaginable.”
Cobrapost Traces How It Allegedly Worked: A Four-Step Machine, Cash → Shell Firms → Fake “Diamond Sale” Bills → LTCG → Real-World Investments.
Meet The Man In The Middle : Yogendra Raj “Singhvi” and nine entities, including eight Surat-based “shell” firms.Under oath, he admitted the transactions were “entries” involving — Fake Bills and No Real diamonds for a — 0.18% commission.
Cash moved through hawala operators (angadiyas).
Cobrapost Follows The Money Trail: Navneet and Shashi Kant alone parked hundreds of crores in property, shares, and 15-16 partnership firms!
The adjudicating authority noted that most of these firms “came into existence around IDS 2016.”
Then Came The Twist: On 14 January 2025, the SAFEMA Appellate Tribunal set aside the orders and vacated the attachments — holding that the Benami unit Failed to prove the cash trail, Singhvi’s statement was retracted, and the IDS 2016 certificate stood.
Cobrapost Examines What The Order Didn’t Say: The Tribunal did -NOT- certify the money was clean. It turned on unproven cash trails, a retracted statement, and a procedural breach, — Not a finding that the diamonds were real. An acquittal on proof, not on the merits.
But the parallel Income Tax Appellate Tribunal contest remains live.
Cobrapost Examines the Way Forward: Authorities can Still Appeal the overturn in the Delhi HC, Refer the case to the ED under PMLA, pursue penal action under the PBPT Act (1-7 years + Fine of up to 25% of value) and the Income Tax Act, and press the live ITAT case.
Cobrapost sent detailed questionnaires to the Chaurasias. No response was received.
Editor The Reality Muted
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