ED attaches absconding jeweler Nirav Modi's assets worth Rs 637 crore, in five countries

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday said it has attached assets worth Rs 637 crore of absconding jeweller Nirav Modi and his family in India and four other countries in connection with the $2 billion alleged fraud in the PNB.

"The properties, jewellery, flats and bank balances are in India, UK and New York among others," the agency said.

There are only very few cases where Indian agencies have attached assets abroad in a criminal probe. The assets have been attached as part of five separate orders issued by the central probe agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), it said.

The agency, a senior official said, also got issued an Interpol Red Corner notice (global arrest warrant) against Aditya Nanavati, an accused in the same case, on charges of money laundering.

Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi are the main accused in the case where it is alleged that the two diamond jewellery businessmen allegedly duped and defrauded the Brady House branch of the Punjab National Bank in Mumbai for an amount of $2 billion (about 13,000 crore) in purported connivance with bank officials.

Nirav Modi has been absconding since the alleged bank fraud, by far the highest in the country in terms of value, came to light early this year even as India is working to get him extradited from the United Kingdom, where he was last reported to have been based.

It has also filed a charge sheet against him alleging that he laundered and diverted over Rs 6,400 crore of bank funds abroad to dummy companies that were under his and his families' control.

A total of 24 accused were listed in the charge sheet, filed under section 45 of the PMLA, including Nirav Modi, his father Deepak Modi, brother Neeshal Modi, sister Purvi Modi, brother-in-law Maiank Mehta and the designer jewellers' firms--Ms Solar Exports, Stellar Diamonds and Diamonds R Us.

"These firms and Modi's Firestar group of companies had fraudulently obtained Rs 6,498 crore through Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) issued by the Punjab National BankNSE 3.43 %, Brady House branch in Mumbai," the central probe agency had said in a statement.

The funds so obtained, it said, by the three firms were "partly utilised for payment to various overseas companies and also for offsetting earlier LOUs".

"It was revealed during investigation that the payments were made to 17 overseas entities in Hong Kong, Dubai and the USA since 2011 in the guise of export and import," the agency said in its charge sheet.

The ED had registered an FIR, called the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), in this instance on February 14.

The CBI had also filed two charge sheets in this case early this month, one against Nirav Modi and the other against his uncle who is absconding in the same case -- Mehul Choksi.

Nirav Modi and others are being probed under various criminal laws after the fraud came to light this year following a complaint by the Punjab National Bank (PNB) that they allegedly cheated the nationalised bank to the tune of over Rs 13,000 crore, with the purported involvement of a few employees of the bank.

Both Nirav Modi and Choksi are said to have left the country before criminal cases were lodged against them.

Choksi is reported to have recently taken the citizenship of Antigua, a caribbean nation, and India has begun extradition proceedings against him too.