Enforcement Directorate completes confiscation of Rs 329 crore of Nirav Modi’s assets

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jul 9, 2020

The Enforcement Directorate has announced that it has successfully confiscated assets worth Rs 329.66 crore ($49.55 million) from jewellery tycoon Nirav Modi under the fugitive economic offenders law.

On July 8, the Enforcement Directorate announced the list of properties that it has confiscated from Modi. This is the first order to confiscate possessions from an accused criminal under the fugitive economic offenders act which was enacted in 2018. The law allows a special court to confiscate property from people charged with committing economic offences valued over Rs 100 crore who are evading prosecution by staying outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts.
 
“The confiscated properties are in the form of four flats at the iconic building Samudra Mahal in Worli Mumbai, a sea-side farm house and land in Alibaug, a wind mill in Jaisalmer, a flat in London, and residential flats in UAE, shares and bank deposits,” the Enforcement Directorate said in a statement, the Press Trust of India reported. 

A special court in Mumbai had ruled to authorise the Enforcement Directorate to confiscate the assets June 8, 2020. The same court had declared Modi a fugitive economic offender in December, 2019.
 
Nirav Modi, who is accused of fraud at the Punjab National Bank along with his Uncle and fellow jeweller Mehul Choksi, is currently being held in Wandsworth prison in the UK. Modi is preparing for his extradition trial which is scheduled to take place in September, the first part of which being postponed from May.
 
The Nirav Modi brand’s Facebook page is still active, along with pages for various brand stores, but no posts have been made on them since February 2018. Choksi’s brand Gitanjali’s Facebook is also still online but has also been inactive since January 2018 and Choksi is believed to be residing in Antigua.