₹100 cr deposits, luxury cars of Nirav Modi, Choksi seized

NEW Delhi/MUMBAI: The ED on Thursday said it has frozen shares, deposits and luxury cars worth over Rs 100 crore of the Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi groups in connection with a money-laundering probe against them in the Rs 11,400-crore alleged PNB fraud.

Enforcement Directorate officials said they have frozen mutual funds and shares worth Rs 86.72 crore belonging to Choksi and his group and Rs 7.80 crore owned by the Modi group.

While the total value of these shares and mutual funds is Rs 94.52 crore, the costly four-wheelers are worth a few crores and hence the overall seizure value stands to be over Rs 100 crore, the officials said.

The total seizure in the case is now Rs. 5,826 crore, which the agency has said is being independently valued.

The central probe agency also seized nine high-end cars belonging to Modi during the raids that were launched against him and Choksi on February 15 under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The searches continued for the eighth day on Thursday.

The seized car brands include a Rolls Royce 'Ghost', a Mercedes Benz, a Porsche Panamera, three Honda models, a Toyota Fortuner and an Innova.

Scam-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Thursday asked billionaire diamond jeweller Nirav Modi to come up with a concrete and implementable plan to settle the loss caused to it by the fraudulent issuance of Letter of Undertakings through one of its branches.

PNB said this in its response to a mail written by Nirav Modi, who allegedly cheated the bank of Rs 11,400 crore in connivance with a few bank officials.

When the illegal activities of Nirav Modi surfaced, the bank brought them to the notice of the law enforcement agencies as they apparently violated FEMA and anti-money laundering law, sources said.

Nirav Modi in his letter to the bank had said that the over-zealousness on the part of the bank to deal with the issue destroyed his jewellery brand and also jeopardised his ability to clear the dues.

It has also come to light that the practice of illegally issuing Letters of Undertaking and Foreign Letter of Credit (FLCs) and then rolling them over to favour Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi groups started in 2008 and continued till these were discovered in January this year.

The illicit activities resulting in fraud of Rs 11,300 crore occurred under the nose of top Punjab National Bank officials, but they claimed to be unaware of the scam.

PNB on Thursday said it has transferred 1,415 employees since Feb 19.