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PNB Fraud Case: ED Attaches 11 Properties Of Nirav Modi Worth Rs 56 Crore In Dubai

The agency has attached assets worth over Rs 700 crore of Nirav Modi and his family in the country till now.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said it had attached 11 properties worth over Rs 56 crore of fugitive diamond jeweller Nirav Modi in Dubai in connection with its money-laundering probe in the $2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case.

The central probe agency said the assets were in the name of "Modi and his group company M/s Firestar Diamond FZE and they bear a market value of $7.79 million, which is equivalent to Rs 56.8 crore".

The ED has issued a provisional order for attachment of these assets under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Last month, the agency had attached assets worth Rs 637 crore of Modi and his family members, including two apartments at New York's iconic Central Park.

Sources in the agency said the ED would soon get multiple letters rogatory (judicial requests) issued by a Mumbai court for the legal formalisation of the attachment of these assets in coordination with its counterpart in Dubai.

Once the LRs were issued, India could freeze the foreign assets of an accused as part of a global legal cooperation in criminal matters, they added.

Modi has been absconding since the alleged bank fraud, by far the biggest in the country, came to light early this year and an Interpol arrest warrant was recently notified against him even as India is working to get him extradited from the UK, where he was last reported to have been based.

The agency has attached assets worth over Rs 700 crore of Modi and his family in the country till now. It has also filed a chargesheet against the fugitive diamond jeweller, alleging that he laundered and diverted over Rs 6,400 crore of bank funds to dummy companies abroad, which were under his and his family's control.

Modi, his uncle Mehul Choksi and others are being probed under various criminal laws, following a complaint by the PNB that they cheated the nationalised bank to the tune of over Rs 13,000 crore with the purported involvement of some of its employees.

In 2014, merely few months after he appeared in Forbes' billionaire list, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) called him out for alleged diversion of imported, duty-free, cut and polished diamonds and pearls to the domestic market.
Modi (46), who had figured in the Forbes' list of richest Indians, has been booked by the CBI for cheating after PNB sent a complaint to it alleging that the jewellery firm owner, his brother, wife and Choksi entered into a criminal conspiracy with the officials of the bank and cheated it, causing a "wrongful loss". 
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(With inputs from PTI)

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