The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday attached 21 properties of billionaire diamond trader Nirav Modi group, including a luxury penthouse, flats…
Nirav Modi (Photo: Twitter)
The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday attached 21 properties of billionaire diamond trader Nirav Modi group, including a luxury penthouse, flats and farmhouses, worth over Rs 523 crore in connection with the Rs 11,400 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case.
According to the PTI, the officials said that the properties have been attached under anti-money laundering law.
The central probe agency said it has issued a provisional order for attachment of the assets, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), and seized a Rs. 81.16 crore valued penthouse (created by joining three flats) and a flat worth Rs. 15.45 crore in the sea-facing Samudra Mahal apartments in the South Mumbai’s Worli.
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With the latest action, the total assets seized by the ED in this case are now over Rs. 6,393 crore, officials claimed, adding that this was being independently valued.
Earlier, the agency had seized gems, diamonds, jewellery, shares, bank deposits and costly cars. The criminal case under PMLA was registered on 14 February.
A farmhouse and adjoining land, worth over Rs. 42.70 crore, in the Kihim area of beach-side Alibaug of the Nirav Modi Trust has also been attached. Similarly, a 53-acre solar power plant, valued at Rs. 70 crore, in the Karjat area of Ahmednagar district of the state has also been brought under the same action.
In other development in the PNB scam case, Gitanjali Gems promoter Mehul Choksi, who has also been named in the case, has reportedly written a letter to his employees stating that it is very tough for him to clear their dues or to pay future salaries “in view of the seizing of the various bank accounts and other properties.”
Nirav Modi and Choksi had fled the country in January.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday investigated around 144 “suspicious companies “associated with both the businessmen.
(With PTI inputs)
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