ED attaches assets of fugitive diamantaire worth Rs 170 crore

Mumbai: In a fresh attachment proceeding against fugitive diamond businessman Nirav Modi, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has taken possession of his assets worth Rs 170 crore in connection with its probe into the multi-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case.

Sources in the ED said that among the attached assets are several of Nirav Modi’s bank accounts, properties and shares in the name of Modi, his associates and firms linked with his businesses. “We have issued a provisional order for attaching the properties of the diamond businessman. Earlier, we seized 34,000 items of jewellery worth Rs 85 crore belonging to Nirav Modi’s uncle Mehul Choksi’s Geetanjali group,” said a source.

Nirav Modi has been on the run and has not been responding to the ED’s summons since the case was registered. His passport was revoked recently however as per latest reports, he has been spotted in London. ED officials said that he was travelling on a Singaporean passport.

The agency has attached property belonging to Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi to the tune of around Rs 7,600 crore.

After the PNB lodged a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), it came to the fore that the uncle-nephew duo had duped the bank of at least Rs 13,000 crore. The duo had secured remittances from the nationalised bank via 143 fraudulent letters of undertaking. These were issued for the Hong Kong branches of other nationalised banks.

The Central Bureau of Investigation and the ED registered two first information reports each in the case.