ED to allow razing of Nirav Modi’s Alibaug bungalow

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will give its go-ahead to the Maharashtra government which informed the agency about the demolition of a sprawling, sea-front bungalow, belonging to fugitive businessman Nirav Modi in Alibaug, as it violates coastal zone regulations.

The decision to demolish the Kihim village bungalow was recently taken during a meeting by environment minister Ramdas Kadam. It came after the Bombay high court recently pulled up the Raigad district collector for not demolishing illegal structures. “The collector will demolish the illegal structure in two to four days,” Ramdas Kadam, state environment minister, told HT.

ED has seized the Kihim village bungalow as “proceeds of crime” in its ongoing investigation into the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud. “We will inform the Adjudicating Authority (AA) and the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court,” said a senior officer.

“The illegal structures which violate the coastal zone rules are to be razed. There is no other alternative,” he said.

ED has provisionally attached immovable properties worth several crores belonging to Nirav and companies controlled by him, including six residential flats and 10 office premises in Mumbai, two residential flats in Pune, a solar power plant and a 135-acre land in Karjat, Ahmednagar. ED first registered a case against Nirav and his accomplices under the PMLA in February 2018 on the basis of two first information reports (FIR) filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in January 2018. CBI had alleged that Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi allegedly cheated PNB in connivance with some bank officials by fraudulently getting the letters of undertaking (LOUS) issued to their three firms without any collateral and without following due procedure, causing a wrongful loss to PNB.