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".
"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.
'It seems PM Modi is running a bank fraudsters settlement company for the likes of Nirav Modi'
Diamond merchant Nirav Modi on Wednesday lost his appeal against extradition on mental health grounds as the high court in London ruled that his risk of suicide is not such that it would be either unjust or oppressive to extradite him to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering. Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay, who presided over the appeal hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice earlier this year, said in their verdict that District Judge Sam Goozee's Westminster Magistrates' Court order from last year in favour of extradition was "sound". The leave to appeal in the high court had been granted on two grounds - under Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) to hear arguments if it would "unjust or oppressive" to extradite 51-year-old Modi due to his mental state and Section 91 of the Extradition Act 2003, also related to mental health.
District Judge Marie Mallon said there were substantial grounds to believe that Nirav Modi would fail to surrender if granted bail.
The lawyer also claimed "there is no evidence to prove any of the charges levelled against my client."
She said she was an "Indian citizen and a law abiding citizen" and has not broken any law. "But, even to issue the two-year passport, the Official Secrets Act has been invoked against me. This Act is usually invoked for espionage," Iltija claimed.
Modi has been relentless in building his brand regardless of banks having a problem of fraudulent and unauthorised transactions with his companies.
Theoretically, Modi, who understood corporate finance, committed no crime by raising debt to fund a growing business. In fact, he did a tidy job of it, but his operation started to see the ground underneath it give way in January 2018. A fascinating excerpt from Pavan C Lall's Flawed: The Rise And Fall Of India's Diamond Mogul Nirav Modi.
ED attached 21 properties of Nirav Modi and his group worth over Rs 523 crore.
The CBI has registered an FIR against an officer of Punjab National Bank (PNB), now suspended, for allegedly cheating the state-run lender to the tune of Rs 168.59 crore through 34 fake bank guarantees, officials said Thursday. Nearly four years after LoU (letter of undertaking) scam allegedly perpetrated by uncle-nephew duo of Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi bled the PNB to the tune of about Rs 13,000 crore, bank official Priya Ranjan Kumar followed similar modus operandi to issue 34 fake bank guarantees without making any entries in its core banking system Finacle, according to the CBI FIR. "As per the interim investigation report dated November 27, 2022, it emerges that the fraud has been perpetrated by the bank staff in collusion with some unknown persons through illegal and unauthorized usage of the bank's systems.
The charges against the diamond merchant centre around his firms Diamonds R Us, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds making fraudulent use of a credit facility offered by the Punjab National Bank, known as 'letters of undertaking'.
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.
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.
The assets have been attached as part of five separate orders issued by the central probe agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, it said.
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 Modi, the fugitive diamond merchant wanted in India to face charges of fraud and money laundering in the estimated $2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case, has lodged his appeal against extradition from the UK and the case will be heard at the high court in London on December 14. The 50-year-old jeweller, who remains behind bars at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London since his arrest in March 2019, was granted permission to appeal against the Westminster Magistrates' Court extradition order on mental health and human rights grounds. High court judge Martin Chamberlain had ruled on August 9 that arguments presented by Modi's legal team concerning his "severe depression" and "high risk of suicide" were arguable at a substantial hearing.
The ED has claimed that Nirav Modi had refused to join the probe despite acknowledging mails and summons issued to him and that he doesn't want to return to India.
The Reserve Bank has permitted PNB to make provisions against the fraud amount.
The judge also asked the Indian government to provide within 14 days the information on which prison he will be held at.
The Crown Prosecution Service said the hearing for his bail petition will take place on June 11.
Decades apart, but the drama linked to the two appears similar, says Nivedita Mookerji.
Westminster magistrates' court judge Nina Tempia confirmed that Modi's extradition trial is scheduled between May 11 and 15 next year and that he must re-appear via videolink every 28 days for "call-over hearings" until the case management for the trial kicks in from February next year.
Nirav, 48, appeared before the Westminster magistrates' court via videolink from his London prison for a routine "call-over" remand hearing.
The chargesheet, filed in a special court in Mumbai, also names several other top officials of the bank.
Firestar Diamond, which on its website states that its operations span the US, Europe, the Middle East, the Far East and India, blamed liquidity and supply chain challenges.
'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'
Nirav Modi's lawyer raised a British court's judgment blocking the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the US on mental health grounds, as the embattled diamond merchant appeared via videolink before a court here on Thursday for a two-day hearing of final submissions in his fight against being extradited to India. The 49-year-old diamond merchant, facing charges of fraud, money laundering and intimidating witnesses in the estimated $2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case, appeared in the Westminster Magistrates' Court. Sporting a full beard and dressed casually in a blazer, he followed the proceedings from a room at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London as his counsel raised Monday's judgment which blocks the extradition of Assange to the US on the grounds of his mental health.
The UK court, which had been presented with detailed submissions regarding the precarious mental health of Nirav Modi and a family history of depression and suicide during the extradition proceedings, concluded on Thursday that the diamond merchant's state of mind may well benefit from a move from his London prison cell to Barrack 12 at Mumbai Central Prison on Arthur Road. As part of a very comprehensive judgment handed down by District Judge Samuel Goozee at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London in which he found a prima facie case of fraud and money laundering against the 49-year-old diamond merchant, it is noted that Modi's risk of suicide may be high but there is no evidence to point to immediate suicidal intentions. The judgment refers to the expert defence witness who had assessed Modi, forensic psychiatrist Andrew Forrester, to point out that Barrack 12 may well be a positive change from Wandsworth Prison in south-west London where he is being held on judicial remand, with the COVID-19 pandemic playing a "significant role" in the deterioration of his "depressive disorder".
The UK judge who handed down his judgment on Thursday in favour of the extradition of Nirav Modi to face charges of fraud and money laundering in India said he had found no evidence of adverse political influence in the case, as claimed by the diamond merchant's legal team.
The United Kingdom's home department has cleared the extradition of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, who is wanted in an over Rs 13,000-crore bank fraud case, officials said on Friday.
The posters carried the caption "Modi ka asli pariwar" (real family of Modi) with 'Bhartiya Yuva Congress' written at the bottom.
The 50-year-old jeweller, who remains behind bars at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London, had lost the first stage of the high court appeals process last week as a judge declined permission to appeal "on the papers". Modi's lawyers had five days to file a renewal application seeking an oral hearing to plead the case for permission to appeal against the extradition ordered by UK Home Secretary Priti Patel on April 16.
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.
The US Department of Justice declined to comment on Modi.
A British court on Tuesday opened the continuation appeal hearing in the extradition case of Nirav Modi, who is wanted in India on the charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to an estimated $2 billion in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam case. The 51-year-old diamond merchant had lodged an appeal last year against his extradition order on mental health grounds. Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay presided over an initial hearing at the High Court in December last year to determine whether District Judge Sam Goozee's Westminster Magistrates' Court ruling from February 2021 in favour of extradition was incorrect to overlook the diamond merchant's "high risk of suicide".
His brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, also left the country on January 1, while wife Ami, a US citizen, and business partner Mehul Choksi, the Indian promoter of Gitanjali jewellery chain, departed on January 6, the officials said.
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.
He is believed to have been living in the UK on an Investor Visa, applied for in 2015
The 49-year-old jeweller, wanted in India on charges of fraud and money laundering in the estimated USD 2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case, further remanded in custody during a routine call-over hearing held via videolink at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London.
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