Plans to curb foreign travel by defaulters

New Delhi: Smarting from businessmen like jeweller Nirav Modi fleeing the country, the government is planning to put in place measures that will restrict the foreign travel of promoters of companies which default on their bank loans.

The Centre will also increase scrutiny to detect any sudden increase in their overseas transactions so that such defaulters are not able to send their money abroad before leaving the country.

The government is under criticism from the Opposition parties after it emerged that billionaire Nirav Modi ran away from the country after a fraud of Rs 11,400 crores at the state-owned Punjab National Bank. The Reserve Bank of India and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) will be among the agencies which will be roped in to implement these measures. The RBI has information on the outward remittances of both individuals and Indian companies. The RBI’s teams will have to flag unusual transactions and alert the investigative agencies about the activities of these defaulters. “If it is found that there is a sudden spurt in suspicious overseas transactions of such defaulters, the agencies may impound their passports to prevent their leaving the country,” a source said.

The income-tax department on Wednesday, meanwhile, attached a total of 141 bank accounts and fixed deposits, valued at Rs 145 crores, of the Nirav Modi group as part of its investigation into the alleged Rs 11,400-crore Punjab National Bank fraud case. The Central Bureau of Investigation also sealed a luxury property of billionaire Nirav Modi in the Alibaug area near Mumbai on Wednesday over the case. The 1.5-acre farmhouse in the ultra-rich neighbourhood at a stone’s throw from the Arabian Sea was purchased by Modi in 2004 for Rs 32 crores for hosting special parties for his clientele to showcase his precious jewellery collection, CBI sources said. The expansive farmhouse, located about 100 km by road from Mumbai in Maharashtra’s Raigad district, also has a 12,000 sq ft bungalow with five bedrooms, a large swimming pool, a movie theatre and a library, they said.

The CBI had detected the property by analysing the documents recovered by it and had started searches on Tuesday. The CBI on Wednesday sealed it till further notice.

The CBI also said it had no information about reports of Modi having two passports “illegally”. The agency presented six persons arrested on Tuesday before a CBI special court in Mumbai, which remanded them in custody till March 3. The CBI arrested Vipul Ambani, president (finance) of Fire Star Diamond, executive assistant Kavita Mankikar and senior executive Arjun Patil (all of Modi’s companies), as well as Kapil Khandelwal, CFO of the Nakshatra group and Gitanjali group, and Niten Shahi, manager of the Gitanjali group. Also taken into custody was Punjab National  Bank’s Rajesh Jindal, general manager (credit), at present posted at the bank’s head office here. Jindal, who was head of the Brady House (Mumbai) branch during 2009-11, was taken into custody on Tuesday night, sources said.