ED to seek confiscation of Nirav Modi’s assets
The Enforcement Directorate is set to move a special court in Mumbai to seek permission for“immediate confiscation” of about ~70 billion assets of designer diamond jewel le rN ir av Mo di under the recently promulgated Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance.
The ED is set to move a special court in Mumbai to seek permission for “immediate confiscation” of about ~70 billion assets of designer diamond jeweller Nirav Modi under the recently promulgated Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance.
The agency, empowered by the Union government to enact the new power in the country, will seek an official declaration to categorise Nirav Modi as a “fugitive” based on its prosecution complaint (charge sheet) filed before a special court in Mumbai last week under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). On May 24, the ED had filed its first charge sheet in the over $2 billion PNB fraud case involving Nirav Modi and his associates stating that over ~64 billion of bank funds were allegedly laundered abroad to dummy companies by him and others.
A total of 24 accused have been listed in the charge sheet, filed under section 45 of the PMLA, including NiravModi, his father, brother Neeshal Modi, sister Purvi Modi, brother-in-law Mayank Mehta and the designer jewellers' firms — Ms Solar Exports, Stellar Diamonds and Diamonds R Us.
The court is expected to take cognisance of the 12,000-page charge sheet on Monday and the counsel for the agency will subsequently seek its permission to invoke the provisions of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance against Modi and immediately begin the procedure to confiscate all the assets “of and linked to” Modi in India and abroad, a senior official said.