Bank accounts of 27 Surat diamond merchants frozen

Bank accounts of 27 diamond merchants from Surat have been frozen and transactions worth crores of rupees have been affected following an alleged case of financial fraud involving a company in Telangana. A few of the merchants from Surat had dealings with the company.

Dinesh Navadiya, former president of Surat Diamond Association, told THE WEEK that the diamond merchants will make a representation to the police on Thursday.
Sources said struggling to deal with the problem for tlhe ast few days, the diamond merchants approached Navadiya.

He said a couple of companies had sold diamond roughs to a firm in Telangana and had also received 50 per cent payment towards it. According to him, one person told the police in Telangana that he had by mistake transferred the amount to the firm (with which a couple of diamond merchants dealt).

Sources said in the interest of national security such cases are looked into.

The firm's account was seized and following Telangana Police's message to banks in Surat, accounts of the diamond merchants were also seized, Navadiya said.
Though only a couple of diamond merchants had dealings with the firm in Telangana, the bank accounts of 27 were frozen.