Gold and diamond jewellery worth Rs5,100 crore have been seized by ED from 17 premises belonging to Nirav Modi across Delhi, Mumbai, Surat and Hyderabad. Photo: Reuters
New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Wednesday directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to produce complete sequence of facts and list of material particulars in connection with the search and seizure of immovable property belonging to Nirav Modi’s Firestar Diamond International Pvt. Ltd.
A bench comprising justices S. Muralidhar and I.S. Mega asked ED to give details of the value of property seized from the premises of Firestar Diamond, the authorities that were present at that time and documents, such as search warrant, pursuant to which the search and seizure took place.
The court was hearing Firestar Diamond’s plea seeking a stay on the seizure of its property in connection with the probe in the Rs12,700-crore fraud at the Punjab National Bank (PNB).
Gold and diamond jewellery worth Rs5,100 crore have been seized by ED from 17 premises belonging to Modi across Delhi, Mumbai, Surat and Hyderabad.
Vijay Agarwal, appearing for Firestar Diamond, objected to the seizure of property belonging to Firestar Diamond and its subsequent retention with PNB. He argued that the ED should have given reasons for the search and seizure then and there.
Firestar Diamond has also challenged the constitutional validity of the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) that allow the ED to conduct search and seizure of property.
Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Gems managing director Mehul Choksi are being investigated by the ED, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as well as the income tax (I-T) department for allegedly defrauding PNB of Rs12,700 crore.
The matter is listed for hearing on 19 March.
[“Source-livemint”]