PNB fraud: After luxury cars and imported watches, ED attaches 21 properties of Nirav Modi worth Rs 523 crore

The ED has now attached 21 properties linked to the Nirav Modi Group in connection with its probe into the PNB scam.

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing the role of absconding diamond merchant Nirav Modi in the Rs 11,400-crore fraud at the Punjab National Bank, has now attached 21 properties linked to him.

The Enforcement Directorate attached 21 properties of Nirav Modi group, including flats and farmhouses, worth over Rs 523 crore under anti-money laundering law, ANI reported on Saturday.

ED attaches 21 immovable properties worth Rs 523.72 crore of #NiravModi & companies controlled by him under PMLA. The attached assets include a farm house in Alibag, Solar Power Plant, 135 Acre land in Ahmednagar and residential & office properties in Mumbai & Pune. — ANI (@ANI) February 24, 2018

Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi are currently under scanner over their alleged role in the Rs 11,400-crore fraud at the Punjab National Bank.

ED attaches 21 immovable properties worth Rs 523.72 crore of #NiravModi & companies controlled by him under PMLA. The attached assets include a farm house in Alibag, Solar Power Plant, 135 Acre land in Ahmednagar and residential & office properties in Mumbai & Pune. pic.twitter.com/aI2YdgOUMc — ANI (@ANI) February 24, 2018

The ED had on Friday froze a bank account with Rs 30 crore balance and shares worth Rs. 13.86 crore held by one of Modi’s companies.

Acting on a tip-off, a team of ED had also recovered a huge quantity of imported watches stacked in 176 steel almirahs, 158 corrugated boxes and 60 plastic containers during raids at one of Nirav Modi-liked firms.

Earlier on Thursday, the ED seized nine luxury cars belonging to Modi group and also froze shares and mutual funds worth Rs 94 crore of Modi and his business partner Choksi. 

The seized cars include one Rolls Royce Ghost, one Porsche Panamera, two Mercedes Benz, three Honda cars and one Toyota Fortuner and one Innova.

A senior ED official said mutual funds and shares worth Rs 7.80 crore belonging to Modi and those worth Rs. 86.72 crore of Choksi and his group were seized from several places during Thursday’s search. The total worth of the properties belonging to Modi and Choksi that have been seized or frozen is now Rs 100 crore.

The evaluation of several paintings found in Samudra Mahal premises in Worli belonging to Modi is being carried out by experts, said the ED official.

Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and others are being investigated by multiple probe agencies after the fraud came to light recently. (Enforcement Directorate)

ED officials have found around 100 current accounts belonging to the Nirav Modi group, which are being probed. 

The ED and Income Tax department have also discovered 200 dummy and shell companies in India and abroad that were allegedly being used to transfer funds in the alleged scam.

Modi, his uncle and Gitanjali Gems promoter Choksi and others are being investigated by the ED and other probe agencies following a complaint by the PNB that they allegedly cheated the state-run bank to the tune of Rs 11,400 crore, with the purported involvement of few of its employees.

The CBI has so far arrested 12 people, including Vipul Ambani, president of finance in one of the companies of Nirav Modi, in two FIRs lodged against Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi.

PNB’s general manager Rajesh Jindal, who was in charge of the Brady House branch in Mumbai during August 2009 to May 2011, was among the senior bank officials arrested.

(With Agency inputs)