Enforcement Directorate seizes jewellery worth Rs 85 crore from Gitanjali Group

By

Maverick Martins

Published
May 18, 2018

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), India's financial investigation agency swung into action to seize jewellery worth Rs 85 crore (approx $12.5 million) brought in the country from Dubai by fraud accused jewellery firm Gitanjali.

The ED seized over 34,000 pieces of jewellery under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as part of its ongoing investigation into the billion dollar Punjab National Bank (PNB)  fraud case. 

Gitanjali Group owner Mehul Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi are the prime accused in the Rs 13,000-crore fraud. Last week, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed charges against  jeweller Mehul Choksi, three of his companies and four employees working at those companies in a charge sheet filed at a Mumbai court as part of a probe into an alleged $2 billion fraud.

"ED seized over 34,000 pieces of jewellery worth Rs 85 crore under PMLA of Mehul Choksi controlled Gitanjali Group brought from Dubai," it said in a statement.

PNB, India’s second-largest state-run bank, said in February that the two jewellery groups led by Modi and his uncle Choksi had defrauded it by raising credit from overseas branches of other Indian banks using illegal guarantees issued by rogue PNB staff over several years.