New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has seized assets worth more than Rs 14 crore of the Gitanjali Group and its promoter and jeweler Mehul Choksi. Vigilance is one of the main accused in the 13,000 crore PNB loan fraud case. These properties have been seized under the Anti Money Laundering Act. The ED said in a statement that these include a 1,460-square-foot flat, gold and platinum jewelery, necklaces made of gold and platinum jewelery, diamond stone, silver and pearl in the O2 tower in the Goregaon area of Mumbai and a Mercedes Benz car. The provisional order of attachment was issued under the Money Laundering Prevention Act (PMLA).
According to the statement, the order was for assets worth 14.45 crore in the name of Geetanjali Group of Companies and its director Mehul Choksi. The 61-year-old vigilante is the maternal uncle of Nirav Modi, the second main accused in the PNB fraud case. The vigil has escaped from India and investigative agencies have described him as present in Antigua and Barbuda. The 49-year-old Modi is in a London jail, where authorities were caught by the ED and CBI in 2019 seeking legal prayer. They are fighting against extradition in India.
The ED and CBI registered a case against both of them, their family members, bank officials and others for fraud in PNB’s Brady House branch in Mumbai in the year 2018. It was alleged that Chauksey, his company Gitanjali James and others, along with some bank officials, fraudulently issued a Letter of Undertaking (LOU) against Punjab National Bank and got the Foreign Letter for Credit (FLC) enhanced. In this, they did not follow the prescribed procedure and wrongly harmed the bank.
