Banks seek permission to sell NiMo’s properties

Mumbai: The consortium of banks in Punjab National Bank case has approached the court seeking permission to intervene in the plea made by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in which the agency has sought permission to confiscate properties of fugitive jeweller Nirav Modi. The consortium has requested the court to allow them to sell the properties mortgaged with them to recover their dues.

The consortium, headed by PNB and the Union Bank of India having 16 and nine banks respectively as members, moved the said plea before the court on Friday, the day when the special Prevention of Money Launder Act (PMLA) court was supposed to hear the application filed by the ED seeking to confiscate Modi’s properties located in India.

In the petition, the consortium has claimed that if the properties are allowed to be auctioned by the claimants to recover their dues, amounting to `7,029.06 crores, then it would give a necessary boost to the economic health of the country in the long run.

The banks have requested that the mortgaged properties belonging to Modi, his company and his family should be exempted from confiscation. They pleaded that the properties should be handed over to the two consortiums.

The ED has filed the application seeking to confiscate Modi’s properties, as the court had declared him Fugitive Economic Offender (FEO) under the special law that allows the probe agency to confiscate properties of fugitive accused.

However, the banks have claimed that they are already suffering at the hands of accused persons and confiscation of properties will further harm their interest. They have claimed that the properties will be liquidated or utilised to repay the outstanding debts to the claimants.

As per the list attached by the banks, these properties include, several immovable properties, 69 bank accounts, and valuables including cars, diamonds and jewelleries. The value of the properties in total is not mentioned as yet in the plea.

Billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi had left the country on January 1, 2018, much before the CBI received a complaint from Punjab National Bank on January 29, 2018 about a `280-crore fraud.

His brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, also left the country on the same day while wife Ami, a US citizen, and business partner Mehul Choksi, the Indian promoter of Gita-njali jewellery chain, dep-arted on January 6, 2018.