MUMBAI/NEW DELHI, Feb 15 - The Enforcement Directorate conducted searches in several properties linked to billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi in Mumbai, Delhi and Gujarat today, and seized diamond, jewellery and gold worth Rs 5,100 crore, officials said.
The raids came after the agency filed a Rs 280-crore money laundering case against Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal and business partner Mehul Choksi yesterday, following a complaint by Punjab National Bank (PNB). ED officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said five properties belonging to Modi and the other accused in Mumbai were sealed by the agency. The ED has, meanwhile, written to the Ministry of External Affairs to revoke passports of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.
Nirav Modi and other members of his family, who fled the country last month, allegedly made fraudulent transactions of over Rs 11,400 crore through 150 letters of understanding issued by the PNB, officials said. Nirav Modi, who holds an Indian passport, left India on January 1, while his brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, also left the country on same day. However, whether they travelled together has to be probed, they said.
Nirav Modi, who is believed to be in Switzerland, was also present in a group photograph of Indian CEOs with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, issued by the Press Information Bureau, during the World Economic Forum on January 23, six days before the bank sent its first complaint against him to the CBI, according to the officials.
Agency sleuths swooped down on at least 10 premises linked to the case early this morning. They searched Modi�s residence in Kurla, jewellery boutique in Kala Ghoda area, three company offices in Bandra and Lower Parel in Mumbai, three premises in Surat in Gujarat and Modi�s showrooms in Chanakyapuri and Defence Colony in Delhi.
Diamond, jewellery and gold worth Rs 5,100 crore have been seized during the searches, the officials said. The ED filed the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after going through a CBI FIR registered early this month. It is understood that the ED also went through the PNB complaint that was made out against Modi and others.
The agency, the officials said, would probe if the allegedly defrauded bank funds were laundered and these proceeds of crime were subsequently used by the accused to create illegal assets and black money.
Modi (46), a regular feature on the lists of rich and famous Indians since 2013, was booked by the CBI, along with wife, brother and business partner Choksi on January 31, for allegedly cheating the state-run PNB to the tune of Rs 280 crore. The bank has sent two more complaints to the CBI on Tuesday, saying the scam was worth more than Rs 11,400 crore. The ED has enlarged its probe to look into the charge of fraud of Rs 11,400 crore, agency officials said.
The CBI also raided the residences of Modi, his brother, wife and Choksi, all partners of Diamond R Us, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds and two bank officials � Gokulnath Shetty (now retired) and Manoj Kharat, who were also named in the FIR as accused.
Meanwhile, even as PNB CMD Sunil Mehta told reporters in Delhi that the bank would take all possible action against the wrongdoers in the Rs 11,400-crore Nirav Modi fraud case, which started in 2011, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance today questioned the Finance Ministry officials, including Secretary Financial Services Rajiv Kumar, about the fraud and asked them to submit a report on it.