The plea also sought a directive for the constitution of a committee of experts who would find the details of bad debt cases in the country.
Officials said they have put freeze orders on bank accounts containing Rs 30 crore and shares worth Rs 13.86 crore of the group.
Gold jewellery exports may decline by about 50 per cent in this financial year from last year after government restrictions reduced the availability of raw material, Gitanjali Gems Chairman and Managing Director Mehul Choksi said.
Frozen mutual funds and shares worth Rs 86.72 crore belong to Choksi and his group, and the rest are owned by the Modi group.
Companies owned by fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi have allegedly siphoned off over Rs 6,344.96 crore from the Punjab National Bank (PNB) using fraudulent letters of undertaking and foreign letters of credit, a CBI investigation into the scam has detected. The findings were submitted by the CBI in a supplementary chargesheet filed before a special court in Mumbai last week, where the agency said the PNB was conned by its employees who were allegedly hand in gloves with Choksi and his company executives and who facilitated the scam as part of a criminal conspiracy. The PNB officials at the bank's Brady House branch in Mumbai issued 165 letters of undertaking (LoUs) and 58 foreign letters of credit (FLCs) during March-April 2017, against which 311 bills were discounted.
The US Department of Justice declined to comment on Modi.
Nirmala Sitharaman said Nirav Modi may have been able to run away from the country, but the government is taking action against him, and claimed that it will "surely nab him".
Polling for the 288-seat Assembly is being held in a single-phase on Wednesday.
The bench also said there was merit in ED's contention that while the "driving force behind the companies" (Modi) was not submitting to the agency's jurisdiction, his companies cannot be given any discretionary relief.
The price is at a 4-year low, stabilising around Rs 25,000/10gm.
The Income Tax Department on Tuesday also raided 20 premises linked to Gitanjali Gems promoter Mehul Choksi and suspected shell firms in connection with an alleged tax evasion case against them, official sources said.
Officials said the Enforcement Directorate along with the Central Bureau of Investigation launched fresh searches on March 22 at the Samudra Mahal luxury residential flats of Modi in Mumbai's Worli area which resulted in the recovery of fresh valuables.
There are around 6,500 diamond manufacturers of which Palanpuri Jains operate a mere 6 per cent, or around 400 companies. But they stand out for being highly interlinked through blood ties.
The Reserve Bank of India also banned with immediate effect issuance of letters of comfort which, like LoUs, are used by importers to fund their overseas purchases.
Gold was Rs 28,100 per 10 gm on July 26, 2014.
The Enforcement Directorate, which continued its searches against Modi, Choksi and their companies for the fourth day on Sunday , is also moving to attach at least two dozen immovable properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Modi has been relentless in building his brand regardless of banks having a problem of fraudulent and unauthorised transactions with his companies.
Demand bounces back but uncertainty over GST rate for jewellery casts a shadow over future.
Nultiple regulators are probing the nexus of scamsters with diamonds after a state-run bank got defrauded of $1.8 billion by designer jeweller Nirav Modi.
The agency has so far seized diamonds, gold jewellery and other precious stones worth Rs 5,716 crore in the case and summoned Modi and Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali Gems, to appear before it on February 23 at its Mubai zonal office.
'Irrespective of the price movement of gold, customers can lock in their purchase at Rs 28,000 per 10 grams of pure gold.'
Import in the first nine months of the current calendar year fell 20 per cent to 525 tonnes from 658 tonnes in the year-ago period.
According to RBI's circular, cases of frauds involving more than Rs 25 crore and up to Rs 50 crore should be given to the CBI's Banking Security and Fraud Cell
A sightholder is a company on the Diamond Trading Company's list of authorised bulk purchasers of rough diamonds.
The notice, the sources said, was issued on Tuesday to Anita Singhvi and that she was asked to explain how much she had paid in cash and through cheque to purchase the valuables and jewellery a few years back. It is understood that the I-T feels that about Rs 1.5 crore was paid by cheque for the purchase of the jewellery, while about Rs 4.8 crore was paid in cash by Anita Singhvi.
Three-four big gem and jewellery firms are showing financial weaknesses and might find it tough to withstand shocks
The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday continued raids for the seventh day as it visited 17 locations across the country, including four shell companies in Mumbai, even as the Income Tax department attached assets worth Rs 145 crore in the alleged Rs 11,400-crore Punjab National Bank fraud.
'There are so many issues that the CVC is examining both with reference to the PNB and RBI,' K V Chowdary said.
There can't be a parallel inquiry and parallel monitoring by the courts, Attorney General K K Venugopal told the court.
'We don't trade with any business where we have specific concerns,' a De Beers spokesperson said.
Gokulnath Shetty, then deputy manager (now retired), Manoj Kharat, a single window operator of PNB, and Hemant Bhat were taken into custody by the agency
The jewellery industry has welcomed the government's decision to ban old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, saying gold demand will rise as people will have more faith in the precious metal than the currency notes. But the unorganised builders and secondary (resale) property market would be adversely impacted.
Providing relief to the economy from widening trade deficit on account of gold imports, the inward shipments of the metal slumped in December to 39 tonnes, Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher said on Wednesday.
The event will also hurt PNB's asset quality in the March 2018 quarter. While the finer details of the fraud have not been provided, making it difficult to gauge the exact impact, analysts say it will dent the bank's financials.
Precious ornaments are estimated to become 3% costlier under GST
The scheme, touted as a panacea to burgeoning CAD, was a huge flop that fostered a spike in smuggling and allowed several Gitanjali-like players to make a killing
"Guide to looting India by Nirav Modi - - 1) Hug PM Modi 2) Be seen with him in Davos. Use that clout to: A) Steal 12,000 crore B) Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the government looks the other way," Congress chief Rahul Gandhi tweeted.
The venue for Saturday's meeting was shifted at the last minute from the headquarters of the India Banks' Association in Cuffe Parade to avoid media glare.
Dealers expect prices to fall further, owing to an impending rate hike in the US
No one knows where billionaire Nirav Modi emerged from. What is known is that when he came (back) to India, he cut his teeth in the diamond business under the tutelage of his jeweller uncle. Then he began to build a glittering international brand. Soon even Hollywood stars like Kate Winslet and Dakota Johnson were walking the red carpet showing off Nirav Modi jewels.
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