The ED has issued summons for appearance to billionaire diamond merchant Nirav Modi and his business partner Mehul Choksi in…
Indian security guards stand at the entrance of a Nirav Modi jewellery showroom in New Delhi on February 15, 2018. (Photo: AFP PHOTO / Sajjad HUSSAIN)
The ED has issued summons for appearance to billionaire diamond merchant Nirav Modi and his business partner Mehul Choksi in connection with its money laundering probe in the Rs 11,400 crore alleged fraud in Punjab National Bank (PNB), officials said.
Both Modi and Choksi have been summoned under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and asked to depose within a week’s time. The notices were handed over to the directors of the firms of the two businessmen as they were not in the country.
While Modi runs the jewellery brand chain under his name, Choksie is the promoter of Gitanjali Gems.
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It has been reported that Nirav Modi had left the country on 1 January and 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 6 January.
Many reports suggest that Nirav Modi has been staying in Switzerland as he could be seen in a group photo of Indian CEOs with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, issued by the Press Information Bureau, in World Economic Forum on January 23, six days before the bank sent its first complaint against him to the CBI, according to the officials.
However, according to a report in NDTV, the diamond merchant Nirav Modi left India and has been residing in an apartment in New York’s Manhattan. He is believed to have been living in a luxurious suite at JW Marriott’s Essex House., the NDTV report further added.
The ED had registered a PMLA case against them and others based on a CBI FIR which was the result of a PNB complaint.
The ED yesterday carried out multiple raids on showrooms, workshops, offices and residences of Modi and Choksi and seized diamonds, jewellery and gold worth Rs 5,100 crore.
The agency was probing if the allegedly defrauded bank funds were laundered and these proceeds of crime subsequently used by the accused to create illegal assets and black money.
(With agency inputs)
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