Rs 5.1 cr assets of Nirav seized, ED moves to revoke passport
BY Team MP15 Feb 2018 11:43 PM IST
Team MP15 Feb 2018 11:43 PM IST
Mumbai/New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate conducted searches in several properties linked to billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi in Mumbai, Delhi and Gujarat on Thursday, and seized diamond, jewellery and gold worth Rs 5,100 crore, officials said.
The raids came after the agency filed a Rs 280-crore money laundering case against Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal and business partner Mehul Choksi on Wednesday, following a complaint by Punjab National Bank.
ED officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said five properties belonging to Modi and the other accused in Mumbai were sealed by the agency. It was now planning to move the Ministry of External Affairs with a plea to revoke his passport, they said.
Agency sleuths swooped down on at least ten premises linked to the case early Thursday morning. They searched Modi's residence in Kurla, jewellery boutique in Kala Ghoda area, three company offices in Bandra and Lower Parel in Mumbai, three premises in Surat in Gujarat and Modi's showrooms in Chanakyapuri and Defence Colony in Delhi.
Diamond, jewellery and gold worth Rs 5,100 crore have been seized during the searches, the officials said.
The ED filed the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after going through a CBI FIR registered early this month.
The diamantaire is an India citizen but his brother Nishal and wife Ami are not Indian nationals.
Billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi had left the country on January 1 much before the CBI received a complaint from Punjab National Bank on January 29 about a Rs 280-crore fraud, officials said.
His brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, also left the country on January 1, while wife Ami, a US citizen, and business partner Mehul Choksi, the Indian promoter of Gitanjali jewellery chain, departed on January 6, the officials said.
The Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Thursday said it would take "full-capacity" action against the wrongdoers.
PNB has suspended ten officers over the scam and referred the matter to the CBI for investigations.
PNB CMD Sunil Mehta told reporters that the bank detected the fraud and had referred the matter to the law enforcement agencies.
"In the last 123 years, we have seen many ups and down. The bank at its full capacity will take every action to book wrongdoers.
"This fraud had started in 2011. Our bank detected first and told the law enforcement agencies about this. PNB is fully committed to its clean banking policy. That is why we are the first one to detect and report this to the various law enforcement agencies," he said.
Mehta tried to assure stakeholders saying that it was a standalone incident confined to a single branch in Mumbai. He also said all other branches of the bank had been scanned to check any fraudulent activity.
The PNB CMD further said the bank had informed all its lenders about the case.
He further said the government was monitoring the case on a day-to-day basis.
Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar said the bank would make the required provisioning and it has "sufficient" funds for it.
"Whole lot of assets will be recovered. Nobody will be spared," Kumar said. More reports inside
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