HYDERABAD: Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials on Wednesday attached properties of city-based AP Gems and Jewellery Park and others worth Rs 218 crore in connection with the 13,000-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam.
According to an official statement from the ED, the seized assets include cut and polished diamonds belonging to AP Gems and Jewellery Park, Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi, his close aide Mihir Bhansali and others.
The Central investigative agency’s zonal office in Mumbai issued three provisional orders under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for the attachment of properties in India and abroad. Among the properties attached is a 2,10,000-sq-feet building standing on 2.5 acres in Banjara Hills in the name of AP Gems and Jewellery Park.
The CBI registered cases against Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi who established the diamond showroom in the city in January, but Choksi and Modi had fled the country by then.
Even as investigation was in progress, the Enforcement Directorate too took up the case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). ED officials have attached Rs 4,489 crore in connection with the case so far.
Choksi was reportedly last seen in the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda. The Interpol (global police) has recently issued a red corner notice against Bhansali in this case.