In yet another significant development, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth over Rs 637 crore of fugitive jeweller Nirav Modi and his family in India and four other countries in connection with the Rs 13,600-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, the agency said on Monday.
There are only a few cases where Indian agencies have attached assets abroad in a criminal case.
The assets, which were attached as part of five separate orders issued by the central probe agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), included jeweller, flats and bank balances in India, UK and New York among others.
A senior official said that an Interpol Red Corner notice was also issued against Aditya Nanavati, an accused in the same case, on charges of money laundering.
Both Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, a co-accused in the case, left India in the first week of January. While Nirav Modi is in the UK and has applied for asylum in June, Choksi has acquired the citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda and is learnt to be residing there.
Last week, the Antigua government had extended its cooperation in the extradition of the Choksi to India. “Greene conveyed to the EAM the assurances of his Prime Minister for the fullest cooperation of their Government in the matter of extradition of Mehul Choksi to India,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said.