The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached gems, jewellery and bank deposits amounting to US $30.98 million and HKD 5.75 million (INR value Rs 253.62 crore) linked to fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi as part of a money laundering probe in the PNB fraud case.
These moveable assets belonging to the Nirav group of companies have been unearthed in Hong Kong, SAR and China and are deemed to be alleged proceeds of crime.
According to officials, on the basis of an FIR filed by the CBI, Mumbai, on charges of forgery and cheating, the ED had initiated investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the Rs 6,498.20 crore PNB fraud case.
“During the course of investigation, some assets of the Nirav Modi group of companies in Hong Kong were identified in the form of gems and jewelleries lying in private vaults and bank balances in accounts at Hong Kong, which is provisionally attached vide attachment order of Rs 253.62 crore under PMLA,” the agency claimed in a statement.
Further, the statement read, “During investigations, previously ED has attached movable and immovable assets of Nirav Modi and associates to the tune of Rs 2396.45 crore in India and abroad. With the present attachment, the total attachment and seizure of assets of Rs 2650.07 crore has been effected in the case against Nirav Modi by ED.”
The movable and immovable assets of Nirav Modi and his associates, amounting to Rs 1,389 crore, have been confiscated under provisions of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, by the special court (FEOA), Mumbai.
The process of physical handing over of confiscated assets is in progress and part of the confiscated assets has already been physically handed over to victim banks,EDofficers claimed.
Earlier, in this case, two prosecution complaints under PMLA have already been filed by theEDagainstNiravModiand associated entities before the special court (PMLA). Simultaneously, the extradition proceedings against fugitiveNiravModiare in the final stage in London, UK.
NiravModi, 50, is presently lodged in a UK jail and has lost his extradition plea to India in connection with the US $2 billion PNB fraud case.
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