(LiveMint)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sought a special court’s permission to seize and sell assets of absconding jewellers Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance. The agency filed an application under Section 12 of the ordinance at the Prevention of Money Laundering court in Mumbai on Wednesday to confiscate their properties in India, the UK and the United Arab Emirates. ED has also asked the court to declare Modi and Choksi as fugitives.
The uncle-nephew duo are being probed by various agencies after a ₹14,356 crore fraud at Punjab National Bank came to light in February. Modi, whose celebrity clients included actors Kate Winslet and Priyanka Chopra, raised loans from overseas branches of Indian banks by fraudulently obtaining guarantees from a Mumbai PNB branch over several years. Both Modi and Choksi will now be required to appear before the PMLA court within the next six weeks, failing which they will be declared as fugitives by the court.Additionally, under the ordinance, their assets in India and abroad can now be confiscated and be sold after valuation to meet creditors’ claims.
