A special court here on Friday allowed 'restoration' of properties worth Rs 500 crore of fugitive jeweler Nirav Modi 's firms to Punjab National Bank (PNB). This is the third such order in a span of about two weeks, with the total value of properties owned by Nirav Modi's companies being restored in this manner now standing at approximately Rs 1,000 crore.
Only 40 per cent of the forensic information required was made available by PNB and as such, there is no way that one can put a cap on the total value of LoUs issued. He is the second Indian to be declared a fugitive economic offender, after liquor baron Vijay Mallya.
The billionaire jeweller, who has fled the country, in the letter also disagreed with the loan default amount of Rs 11,400 crore and pegged the amount his companies owe to the bank at under Rs 5,000 crore.
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 case goes back to 2014, where the diamond merchant had pleaded guilty, though indirectly, for mis-declaration of exports of diamonds.
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".
Despite the rating agency CARE withdrawing the ratings assigned to the bank facilities of FIPL "with immediate effect" following the receipt of a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the banks, Modi's company received uninterrupted letters of undertaking (LoUs) from PNB, which were honoured by other banks until a few weeks ago.