ED seizes Nine luxury vehicles, shares in Rs100crore raid on Modi
Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) furthered its crackdown against diamond businessman Nirav Modi and seized nine luxury cars registered in his name and in the name of his company on Thursday.
The officials have also seized costly paintings belonging to Modi that were found at his Samudra Mahal residence in Worli.
The ED officials conducted raids and made seizures worth '100 crore. It includes freezing Modi’s mutual funds and shares worth '7.80 crore and those of the Mehul Choksi Group worth '86.72 crore. The ED is also probing if Modi brought back fraudulently raised funds to India, amidst speculations that he had deposited part of the funds in the bank’s Nostro accounts. ED officials have identified several shell companies where money was diverted after it was issued by two other branches based out of Hong Kong.
In Hyderabad, the income tax department attached SEZ property of the Gitanjali Group worth '1,200 crore as per the assessee’s own valuation. The IT department has attached 141 bank accounts/fixed deposits of the group so far. Cumulative credit balance in these accounts is about '145.74 crore, stated IT sources on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the investigators are now in the process of completing valuation process of the seized assets. The list of cars seized by the agency, includes Rolls-Royce Ghost, Porsche Panamera, two Mercedes-Benz, three Honda cars, and one Toyota and Innova SUV each. These vehicles are now in the custody of the ED and they will establish the market value based on their depreciation values.
The officials stated that efforts were already underway to track down Modi and Choksi amidst reports of them being holed up in United States, Belgium etc. The ED said custody of arrested accused Gokul-nath Shetty, former deputy branch manager of the tainted branch of Punjab National Bank and Manoj Kharat, single window operator of the same branch will be taken at a later stage. The duo is currently in the CBI’s custody.
While ED has conducted seizures worth over '5,761 crore in the past week, officials said they will continue the same. Officials said that they will also take possession of Modi’s farmhouse in Alibaug, which has witnessed several parties attended by the who’s who from the world of business and Bollywood.
The property is spread over 1.5 acres and has a 1,200-sq-foot farmhouse with five bedrooms. “We will seize the flats and the Alibaug farmhouse of Modi as a part of the investigation. The CBI has already attached the properties as per the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. It will have to be attached by the ED,” said an ED officer.
