Ahmedabad, 11 January 2012

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials today arrested Ramesh M Patel, Executive Director of Meghmani Organics Limited for duty evasion of Rs 4 crore. Patel was arrested after thorough investigation and questioning.

Three days back DRI had seized 10 containers of a city-based chemical company Mahadev chemicals for alleged misdeclaration of contents inside. DRI officials had received information that the company has been importing Diethyl Thiophosphoryl Chloride (DETCL) from China but falsify records to show it was Diethylenetriamine (Deta).

Sources said that the company has been caught on wrong foot as to evade the heavy anti-dumping duty on DETCL, which is an intermediate used for manufacturing pesticides, the consignments were declared as that of Deta.

The government had in 2009 introduced an anti-dumping duty of around Rs 30 per kilogram of DETCL. Mahadev Chemicals accepted the misdeclaration charges and has already paid Rs 1.25 crore evaded duty on the consignments which weighs around 200 tonnes. However, after some investigation, DRI suspected that the firm actually carried out imports for a chemical manufacturing giant Meghmani Organics Limited. DRI then raided the Meghmani’s office in Ahmedabad’s Paldi area and one of the manufacturing units in Ankleshwar, and also quizzed Ramesh Patel, Executive Director, who was found key person in this case.

According to DRI official, the duty evasion runs into crores as the department suspects that the firm has been for more than a year importing the chemical from China and misdeclaring the contents.

Ramesh Patel is one of the co-foundres and partners of the M/s Gujarati Industries, which was subsequently converted into Meghmani Organics Limited in 1995. Patel is currently serving as in charge of overseeing purchases made by the company (including domestic purchases and global imports) and is responsible for all liaisons between the Company and government authorities or other regulatory bodies. Patel has more than 27 years of experience in the pigments industry and more than 13 years of experience in the agrochemicals industry and he is considered expert in these fields in Gujarat.

Updates on 12 January

Metropolitan Magistrate UK Trivedi today released Ramesh Patel on conditional bail. Patel has to deposit Rs 25,000 in court. He will have to surrender his passport. He will have to remain present in court once in a month during first five days, for next six months.