New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had today attached assets of worth more than Rs. 218 crore in relation to Rs. 13,000-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, officials said. All the attached assets belong to the fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi, Mihir Bhansali, a close aide and US-based executive of main accused in the Nirav Modi case, along with a company named AP Gems and Jewellery Park.
After the it was revealed that the duo, Mehul Choksi and celebrity jeweler Nirav Modi were involved in extracting crores of loans from banks abroad on the fake guarantees basis from the Punjab National Bank, multiple crime investigating agencies are seeking their extradition to India.
The National bank said that some of its officials from a branch in Mumbai were involved in helping Nirav Modi and others to get credit in clear violation of rules. The huge fraud was revealed earlier this year when companies of Nirav Modi sought a fresh loan.
Last month, Mehul Choksi came on the camera for the first time since the scam was revealed and said “All allegations against me are false and baseless,” he had said.
“The Enforcement Directorate has attached my properties illegally without any basis,” Mehul Choksi said from Antigua, where he has been living amid multiple efforts in India to bring him back.
The duo uncle-nephew (Mehul Choksi-Nirav Modi) had fled India in January this year. The businessman was given citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda last year and he also took an oath of allegiance to that country on January 15.
The government has been trying to extradite the jeweler from that country along with his nephew, celebrity diamond jeweler Nirav Modi, and went to live in Antigua and Barbuda, where he was granted citizenship last year itself.
There is “no question of surrendering passport”, Mehul Choksi said, as it had been revoked “without explanation as to why I am a security threat”.
Mehul Choksi also alleged that all the cases against him were due to a political conspiracy, after which the request made by India for his extradition was put on hold by the Interpol.
There have been many such scams in recent times specially during the BJP regime in the country. Another remarkable scam is that of Vijay Mallya, the owner of now defunct Kingfisher airline. He too had taken such loans from public sector bank SBI and fled the country to Britain.
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