Nirav Modi fraud case: ED seizes 9 cars

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday seized nine cars belonging to jeweller Nirav Modi and his companies, in connection with the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case.

The cars seized by the agency include a Rolls Royce Ghost, a Porsche Panamera, two Mercedes Benz GL 350 CDIs, three Honda cars, a Toyota Fortuner and a Toyota Innova.

Mutual funds and shares worth Rs 7.80 Crore of Nirav Modi and Rs 86.72 crore of those belonging to Mehul Choksi Group were also frozen by the agency.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Income Tax (IT) department attached Rs. 145.74 crore found in several bank accounts belonging to jeweller Nirav Modi.

Till date, the IT department has attached a total of 141 bank accounts / Fixed Deposits of the group.

Meanwhile, Nirav Modi's lawyer alleged that the Punjab National Bank (PNB) has termed commercial transactions as a fraud.

PNB had lodged two financial fraud complaints of Rs. 11400 crore and Rs 280 crore against Nirav Modi, his family members and Mehul Choksi, owner of Gitanjali Gems.

The Punjab National Bank detected a 1.77 billion dollar scam, in which jeweller Nirav Modi acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from one of its branches for overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

The scam was started in 2011 and was detected in the third week of January this year, after which the PNB officials reported it to the concerned agencies.

Meanwhile, the PNB filed a second complaint with the CBI on February 13.

The CBI had received the complaint from the PNB on January 28 and a case was registered in the case on January 31.

--ANI