MUMBAI: A Nagpur-based businessman has claimed that he sold a ruby, which was earlier dismissed as a fake stone when offered to the Tirupati temple trust as a gift, for a whopping Rs 10,000 crore.
Subhashchandra Limaye, who owns mines in Gondia, had since 1994 possessed the hexagonal 1275-carat stone weighing 255 gm, known as Gondia Ruby, which he says is the fully finished, largest two-star ruby in the world.
“I sold Gondia Ruby to a trader for Rs 10,000 crore in December 2014. The sales deed has been prepared. Other formalities are going on. I expect to get the amount by December,” Limaye said, refusing to reveal the buyer’s name for “security reasons”.
He has filed a police complaint with the Ram Nagar police station in Gondia district of Vidarbha against the trustees “for causing a loss to the trust by refusing his donation”. In 1998 Limaye donated the ruby to the temple trust, but it refused to accept the doantion, saying that it was a fake stone.
“If they had accepted it, I would have become the biggest donor to the trust. According to the trust rules, the biggest donor is made a permanent trustee. Some trustees didn’t want me on the trust. Of course, I didn’t donate it to become a trustee,” he said.
“After the trust said the ruby was not genuine, traders boycotted me. I had to suffer a huge loss because of the boycott. I took the trust to court. The trust filed a case against me for cheating,” he said, adding that some international traders tried to buy the ruby at a lower price.
Later Limaye teamed up with a Chennai-based businessman, Rakesh Malik, to auction the ruby on the international market. However, the attempt failed as they were expected to foot the bill -- Rs 5 crore in 1998 -- for ferrying the ruby to Geneva in Switzerland. He said he would spend 90 percent of the price on public welfare activities.
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