A special court today allowed Enforcement Directorate to attach some properties of fugitive Nirav Modi under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act.
However, it exempted some properties from the list, furnished by ED, which were secured to Punjab National Bank and a consortium of Banks either through Mortgage, Hypothecation or personal guarantee.
Under the FEO Act, once an accused is declared as an FEO, his or her properties can be confiscated directly to the Central Government. In 2018, the ED had sought confiscation of properties of Modi who is an accused in the PNB scam case.
The order of confiscation, delivered today, is the first such order under FEA act, said ED Counsel Hitesh Venegaonkar.
The ED’s application for confiscation of properties of Nirav Modi was thus partly allowed by the special Judge V C Barde who said “the properties of accused (Nirav Modi) as mentioned by ED “excluding the properties claimed by interested parties — PNB and other banks which are only secured by Mortgage, Hypothecation and Guarantee and to the extent of valuable painting seized by Income Tax Department — shall be attached within a month from Monday.”
The operative part of the order, pronounced Monday, noted “After the attachment, the properties shall stand confiscated to the Central Government under section 12 (2) and (8) of FEO Act, 2018.”
The court allowed ED to apply separately for attachment of valuable painting of Modi and also further properties of the accused whenever they come to light in future.
The CBI had charged the fugitive Nirav Modi for alleged fraud on Punjab National Bank in obtaining Letters of Credit worth over Rs 7000 crore in a criminal conspiracy with several bank officials.
Nirav left India in early 2018 and is currently lodged in UK jail after extradition process began against him last month. The matter has been adjourned to September 2020.
