NewDelhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday froze shares and mutual funds worth Rs 94 crore of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi groups, in the alleged Rs 11,400-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud.
In total, ED froze mutual funds and shares worth Rs 7.80 crore belonging to Nirav Modi and MF and shares worth Rs 86.72 crore belonging to Mehul Choksi Group.
The investigative agency also seized 9 luxury cars of Modi. These cars include one Rolls Royce Ghost, two Mercedes Benz GL 350 CDIs, one Porsche Panamera, 3 Honda cars, one Toyota Fortuner and one Toyota Innova.
Meanwhile Modi Choksi have asked their employees to look for new jobs. As per Zee Business, Choksi’s Gitanjali Gems has handed over pink slips to five thousand employees.
Nirav Modi too has reportedly written to his employees to look for another job. He is said to have told his employees that the future is unsure and thus they should explore other avenues.
As part of the multi-agency probe in the case, the Income Tax department this week attached seven properties of the Gitanjali group and its promoter Mehul Choksi, uncle of Modi, in Mumbai.
While the ED is looking into the money laundering aspect of the Rs 11,400-crore scam, the CBI continues to focus on unravelling the mystery behind issuance of Letters of Understanding and Letters of Credit bypassing the bank’s regulatory mechanism.
The ED and the Income Tax department have zeroed in on about 200 dummy or shell companies in India and abroad that were being used to route or receive funds as part of the alleged fraud.
Modi, Choksi and others are being investigated by multiple probe agencies after it recently came to light, following a complaint by the PNB, that they allegedly cheated the nationalised bank to the tune of Rs 11,400 crore, with the purported involvement of a few employees of the bank. The CBI and the ED have registered two FIRs each to probe the case.
Bureau Report
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