ED seeks permission to sell seized Nirav Modi's property

Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Thursday filed an application before a special PMLA court, seeking permission to sell seized property, including cars, watches and paintings, that belonged to absconding Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam-accused, Nirav Modi.

ED counsel Arvind Aghav filed the plea before special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court Judge V.C. Barde. The agency sought permission to sell paintings, watches, cars, bags, purses and other articles among the property seized by it, belonging to Mr Modi.

The ED had seized these articles in the raid carried out earlier this year on Mr Modi’s house, Samudra Mahal. Apart from the ED, the Income Tax department, too, had conducted a raid on Mr Modi’s house and seized eight cars and paintings from there.

ED counsel informed the court that initially, the property was attached provisionally on February 25, 2019. Later however, the adjudicating authority, under provisions of the PMLA, confirmed attachment on July 15. This allowed the agency to sell the attached property and hence, this application had been made. The ED, in its plea, claimed that the seiz-ed paintings were worth `57.72 crores and were perishable in nature. The agency further claimed that 55 out of the 173 paintings seized by the Income-Tax department had already been auctioned.

The ED stated that the aforementioned paintings and articles were prone to speedy and natural decay, and maintenance expenditure would exceed their value if kept idle for a long time.