Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi's assets worth Rs 218.46 crore seized by ED

Mehul Choksi

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday seized cut and polished diamonds worth Rs 218.46 crore in the PNB scam belonging to Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi and others. The agency has also seized a flat belonging to Choksi's daughter in Trump Tower in the city worth Rs 1.70 crore. As per the ED probe, money was transferred to her account in Belgium, and then brought to India to pay the builder.

ED has also seized a bungalow belonging to Choksi overseas. The total attachment till date in the scam is worth Rs 4,489 crore from the assessed value. ED also seized a flat abroad worth R51 crore owned by Mihir Bhansali, who is a close confidante of Nirav Modi and a beneficiary in the scam. He was actively involved in the diversion and laundering of the funds received from PNB's LOUs, ED officials said.

They also seized a building with an area of 2,10,000 sq feet at Hyderabad belonging to A P Gems and Jewellery Park. This property is worth R120 crore and Choksi has a share of 89% in it. ED has filed cases against Modi and Choksi in the Rs 13,700 crore scam based on the CBI FIR. The probe has revealed that from 2011 to 2017, the accused officials of PNB along with others, fraudulently issued a large number of letters of undertaking (LoU) to overseas banks to obtain buyer's credit in favour of some of the jeweller's firms.

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