Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that fugitive businessmen Vijaya Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi are "coming back" to India" to face the law.
If there were an Olympics for bank frauds in India, Rishi Agarwal, founder and former chairman of ABG Shipyard Ltd, a nephew of the Ruia brothers of the Essar group, would bag the gold, pushing Nirav Modi to his right, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
With a UK court ruling in favour of the extradition of fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi, wanted in India on charges of fraud and money laundering in Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case, Mumbai's Arthur Road jail has kept a special cell ready to lodge him, an official said on Friday.
'It can't be a coincidence that he and his family, uncles and all, vanished from India only days before the scam was discovered.'
While the fixtures from the bungalow will be up for auction, three items, a jacuzzi, a chandelier, and a Buddha statue, have been kept aside for handing over to the ED.
Taking to Twitter, Gandhi posted, "The scamster's escape formula: La(Mo) + Ni(Mo) ---(with) Na(Mo)---> Bha(Go)", while using the hashtag "#ModiRobsIndia".
The items which included a Porsche Panamera and a gold Cartier wristwatch were expected to fetch Rs 50 lakh.
The move takes the process of extraditing and bringing back Nirav Modi to face the law in India to the next stage, the sources said.
A team from Britain's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) recently visited Tihar Jail to assess prison conditions for the extradition of high-profile economic offenders such as Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya.
The notice, which acts as an international arrest warrant, states that Purvi Deepak Modi, 44, is required on charges of "money laundering".
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.
Days after Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar joined the Maharashtra government, the Shiv Sena (UBT) on Wednesday claimed that only alleged economic offenders Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya were left to be inducted into the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Subhash Shankar Parab, a key accused in the Rs 7,000 crore diamantaire Nirav Modi bank fraud case, was "deported" from Cairo on Tuesday after a long diplomatic and legal process, officials said in New Delhi. A CBI team had gone to Egypt's capital to bring back 50-year-old Parab, who was allegedly kept in illegal confinement in a Cairo suburb by Modi, the fugitive diamantaire, they said. The CBI had been chasing Parab, deputy general manager (finance) in Modi's Firestar Diamond and understood to be a key witness to the Letters of Undertaking (LoU) submitted to the Punjab National Bank (PNB) to siphon off over Rs 7,000 crore, they said.
The common denominator: They were predominantly Gujarati, mostly male, and either related by blood or very well-known to Nirav.
Wanted diamond merchant Nirav Modi, whose extradition to India was ordered in April by UK Home Secretary Priti Patel in the estimated USD 2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case, has lost the first stage of his extradition appeal in the high court in London.
Wanted diamond merchant Nirav Modi appeared via videolink from his London prison for a regular call-over hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday, when he was further remanded in custody until February 25, when the judgment in his extradition case is to be handed down. District Judge Angus Hamilton informed Modi that he would most likely be appearing again via videolink on the day of the ruling, which will decide whether the 49-year-old jeweller has a case to answer before the Indian courts on fraud and money laundering in relation to the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case. Last month, District Judge Samuel Goozee had confirmed the timeline for the judgment at the end of closing submissions in the case, during which he heard that Modi is responsible for overseeing a "ponzi-like scheme" that caused enormous fraud to PNB.
The valuables include polished diamonds, pearls and silver jewellery and are worth Rs 1,350 crore.
'It seems PM Modi is running a bank fraudsters settlement company for the likes of Nirav Modi'
The agency on Friday also carried out searches on the premises of the Gitanjali Group at 20 places in Mumbai, Pune, Surat, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Coimbatore.
Among the seizures were Indian masters such as FN Souza, VS Gaitonde, SH Raza, Amrita Sher-Gil and Akbar Padamsee, sculptures from Italy and the US, Chinese artwork and masterpieces by Xu Lei and Zeng Xiaojun.
A court in Antwerp on Friday cleared the extradition of fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi, noting that his arrest by the Belgian authorities on India's request was valid, officials in the know of the development said.
"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.
In a major blow to Nirav Modi, a bankruptcy court in the US has rejected a petition of the fugitive diamond merchant and two of his associates, seeking dismissal of fraud allegations against them by the trustee of three companies they previously owned indirectly.
District Judge Samuel Goozee expressed his concern at the late submission of the documents, said to include largely bank statements relating to the diamond merchant's companies, but has agreed to consider the application for their submission.
Nirav Modi, the fugitive diamond merchant wanted in India to stand trial on fraud and money laundering charges, told a UK court on Thursday that he could be in England for years as some ongoing proceedings prevent his extradition. The 52-year-old former billionaire appeared for a hearing at Barkingside Magistrates' Court in east London via video link from Thameside prison in relation legal costs, or fines, amounting to GBP 150,247.00, accrued over his failed extradition appeal proceedings in the London high court. Dressed in a pink prison-issue outfit and sporting a moustache, a plump and bald Nirav addressed the three-member magistrates' bench to reveal that he had complied with the previous court direction to pay in GBP 10,000 per month towards the fines.
CBI said it had shared the information about revocation of his passport in the 'diffusion' notice issued through the Interpol on February 15.
The diamond merchant wanted in India on charges of fraud and money laundering in the estimated $2-billion Punjab National Bank scam case, lost his legal battle against extradition as a UK judge ruled that he does have a case to answer before the Indian courts.
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".
The lawyer also claimed "there is no evidence to prove any of the charges levelled against my client."
Fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi's sister and brother-in-law have "turned approvers" in the over $2 billion PNB fraud case against him and they will help the Enforcement Directorate confiscate assets worth Rs 579 crore, including Swiss bank deposits, the agency said on Thursday. Forty-nine-year-old Nirav Modi, who is currently lodged in a London jail, his uncle Mehul Choksi and others are being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) money laundering case since 2018. The diamond merchant's younger sister Purvi Modi (47) is a Belgian national while her husband Maiank Mehta is a British citizen. They are stated to be based abroad and have never joined the probe.
Official sources said while the accounts of Nirav Modi, the diamantaire under arrest in this case in London, have deposits of $3,74,11,596 (Rs 258 crore) while the accounts in the name of his sister Purvi Modi has deposits of 27,38,136 (Rs 24 crore).
Modi has been relentless in building his brand regardless of banks having a problem of fraudulent and unauthorised transactions with his companies.
The High Court in London on Tuesday began hearing Nirav Modi's appeal on the grounds of his mental health against extradition to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering, amounting to an estimated $2 billion in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam case. Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay presided over the hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice to determine whether District Judge Sam Goozee's February ruling in favour of extradition was incorrect to overlook the diamond merchant's "high risk of suicide". The court heard of an additional assurance from the Indian authorities on November 13, which reiterates previous commitments of adequate specialist medical care and an ambulance at hand were Nirav to be extradited to Mumbai.
ED attached 21 properties of Nirav Modi and his group worth over Rs 523 crore.
District Judge Marie Mallon said there were substantial grounds to believe that Nirav Modi would fail to surrender if granted bail.
'The PM teaches children how to take exams for 1.5 hours, but fails to tell the country on who is responsible for PNB scam'
PNB is fully committed to its clean banking policy. That is why we are the first one to detect and report this to the various law enforcement agencies," PNB's CMD Sunil Mehta said on Thursday.
During his stay in London, he was reportedly living in the heart of the city above his jewellery boutique called "Nirav Modi" on Old Bond Street, which was reportedly closed last week, The Sunday Times reported.
Nirav, 48, appeared before the Westminster magistrates' court via videolink from his London prison for a routine "call-over" remand hearing.
The ED officer will carry the latest charge sheet filed by the agency against Modi's wife Ami and the recent attachments made by it in the case.
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