India's Enforcement Directorate (ED) has confiscated fugitive diamantaire Nirava Modi’s properties worth INR 329.66 crore in Mumbai, Rajasthan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the UK as part of the ongoing case against him.
The movable and immovable assets were seized under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEOA) 2018, the ED said yesterday.
The assets included four flats at Samudra Mahal, the iconic building in South Mumbai’s Worli, one seaside farm house and land in Alibaug, one wind mill in Jaisalmer, one flat in London and some flats in the UAE, shares and bank deposits.
On December 5, 2019, an FEOA special court in Mumbai declared Nirav Modi a fugitive economic offender. On June 8 this year, it asked the ED to attach his assets (other than properties mortgaged or hypothecated and secured to Punjab National Bank-led consortium) and those belonging to his companies.
It also asked the consortium of banks to move the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) special court to claim the mortgaged, hypothecated and secured properties, which were attached by the ED.
Nirav Modi, along with his uncle Mehul Choksi, is among the prime accused in the INR 14,000 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, unearthed over two years ago.
Currently, Nirav Modi is in a London jail after his arrest by the local police in March 2019. Choksi has taken citizenship of the Caribbean island nation of Antigua & Barbuda.