The agency has approached the court to seek an official declaration to categorise both Modi and Choksi “fugitives”, based on its prosecution complaints — chargesheets — filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) moved a special court on Wednesday seeking ‘immediate confiscation’ of attached assets valued at over Rs 3,500 crore of absconding diamond jewellers Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi under the recently promulgated Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance.
The agency has approached the court to seek an official declaration to categorise both Modi and Choksi as ‘fugitives’, based on its prosecution complaints — chargesheets — filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
If both the alleged offenders fail to make an appearance in the court within six week’s time, the court will declare them as fugitive offenders. Under the new ordinance, their assets in India and abroad will be liable for confiscation and can be sold to meet the creditors’ claims, even before the trial begins.
The probe agency has so far attached assets worth Rs 1,175 crore of Modi and Rs 2,400 crore of Choksi in India. This includes movable and immovable assets, diamonds, gold, and jewellery.
A PMLA court in Mumbai has already issued non-bailable warrants against Modi and Choksi on the request of the ED. While Choksi is learnt to be in the US, Modi is likely to be in either Belgium or the United Kingdom, sources had told The Indian Express.
Modi and Choksi are wanted by multiple investigating agencies after state-owned Punjab National Bank complained against their companies, saying it had been cheated of Rs 13,600 crore through fraudulent letters of undertaking and foreign letters of credit. Both left India in January, a few weeks before the scam came to light.
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