PNB Fraud | ED moves to seize assets of Nirav Modi in six foreign countries

A special anti-graft court in Mumbai allowed the Enforcement Directorate on Monday to pursue seizure of overseas assets of diamantaire Nirav Modi, who is accused of defrauding the Punjab National Bank of over Rs 11,000 crore along with his uncle Mehul Choksi.

The ED moved the Prevention of Money Laundering Act court urging it to issue Letters of Rogatory to six countries. The court sided with the ED's contention that the LoRs will aid the agency complete its investigation under the PMLA Act.

An LoR is a request to a foreign judge, seeking judicial assistance in some form. This helps an agency overcome infringement on the foreign court's authority. The ED has appealed to the court to issue LoRs to Singapore, the US, UAE, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Hong Kong, a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China.

The ED, which has registered a case against Nirav under PMLA, said the diamond merchant got high-value Letters of Undertaking issued by PNB in favour of his firms and availed funds on foreign soil. But the LoUs were later found to be falsified and there was no record of those documents in bank records, said the ED application.

Stressing the need for the LoRs, the application by ED counsel Hiten Venegaonkar said that the accused generated nearly Rs 64,980 million, siphoned it off and laundered the money to the mainstream financial system to project it as "untainted property". The ED said, "A certain part of the proceeds or property involved in money laundering is reasonably believed to be parked in the six countries."