‘ Choksi properties worth 1,210cr are laundering assets’

The adjudicating authority of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act ( PMLA) has concluded that 41 properties worth about ` 1,210 crore, attached by the Enforcement Directorate ( ED) in the name of absconding diamond jeweller Mehul Choksi and his associated firms, are money laundering assets and ordered that their attachment should continue.

The ED had provisionally attached 15 flats and 17 office premises in Mumbai, a mall in Kolkata, a four- acre farm house in Alibaug and 231 acres of land at locations like Nashik, Nagpur, Panvel in Maharashtra and Villupuram in Tamil Nadu, in February this year under the PMLA in connection with the about $ 2 billion alleged fraud at a Mumbai- based branch of the Punjab National Bank ( PNB). “Considering the material in the original complaint ( by the ED), I find that immovable properties provisionally attached are all involved in money laundering. I, therefore, hereby confirm the attachment of properties and order that the said attachment shall continue during investigation for a period not exceeding ninety days or the pendency of proceedings relating to any offence under the PMLA before a court and become final after an order of confiscation is passed by the special court,” a recent order issued by Member ( Law) of the Adjudicating Authority of the PMLA.

The Authority is a quasi- judicial body that adjudicates over PMLA attachment of assets.