PNB moves DRT to recover Rs 7,000 crore from Nirav Modi

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jul 4, 2018

Two days after Interpol issued a Red Corner Notice against jewellery Nirav Modi, the Punjab National Bank (PNB) has moved the Debts Recovery Tribunal (DRT) to recover Rs 6,800 crore ($1 billion) in assets.

The PNB filed an application to the DRT in Mumbai in a move to recover assets from Nirav Modi and his partnership firms including Diamonds R Us, Stellar Diamonds, Firestar International, and Solar Exports. The PNB maintains that the assets in question were obtained by “unauthorised financial assistance” through fraudulently obtained letters of undertaking (LoUs). The assets, according to the application, date from March 10, 2011 to May 31, 2017.

Nitesh Jain, a partner at the Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas law firm, filed the application against Nirav Modi, his firms, the Nirav Family Trust and its trustees Modi, his wife Ami Modi, brother Nishal Modi, and the trust’s beneficiaries which include Modi’s children. This application is the first made in the case by the PNB but it is expected to file more applications in the near future.

At present, Modi, his wife (a US citizen), and his brother (a Belgian citizen) have been outside India since before the case came to light in January. As a Red Corner Notice has now been issued against Modi, applications for his extradition are being send to several countries in which he could be residing.