The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has initiated legal process to auction diamantaire Nirav Modi’s three flats in Samudra Mahal building at Worli worth over Rs 110 crore, a flat at Breach Candy, his Alibaug bungalow, a windmill and a solar power project to recover the Rs 6,500 crore he had allegedly defrauded from Punjab National Bank (PNB).
Sources said the auction is estimated to generate over a few hundred crore rupees.
The ED and income-tax authority had earlier recovered around Rs 130 crore after auctioning Nirav Modi’s luxury, fashion and art items, mostly paintings, vehicles, and watches.
On June 1 and 2, a leading auction house, on behalf of the ED, auctioned luxury items owned by the Modis, including two watches for Rs 1.8 crore, which was almost double the estimated value, and recovered Rs 2.71 crore. Among the top auctioned items were three watches for Rs 90.5 lakh, Rs 89.5 lakh and Rs 19.16 lakh; a Desmond Lazaro’s untitled artwork of Ambassador car for Rs 22.38 lakh; and two handbags for Rs 12.91 lakh and Rs 11.09 lakh.
Modi had allegedly defrauded PNB by submitting inflated import bills requesting to release payment to exporters, mainly in Dubai and Hong Kong, through letters of undertaking (LoU). The exporters’ firms were Modi-controlled shell companies.
Every time, he would request the bank to increase the LoU amount, and then used large portions of the money to pay back the bank’s previous LoU amount before the due date and use the remaining money for himself. But his modus operandi was exposed in 2018 after he defaulted on a payment. Modi then fled the country with his family.
The ED attached total immovable and moveable assets worth Rs 4,400 crore of Modi and his kin, of which the authorities issued confiscation order of assets worth Rs 1,400 crore, which empowers the government authority to take possession of these assets for auctioning to recover dues.
Among the confiscated properties, the ED had handed over properties worth Rs 1,000 crore to PNB last December, which includes Rhythm House, a flat at Nepeansea Road, an office building at Kurla and jewellery for auction or any other action as most of these properties had been mortgaged with the bank while seeking LoU facilities or loans. PNB is yet to take any decision related with the auction of most of these assets, said ED sources.
He was declared a fugitive economic offender by court in India. In March 2019, Modi was arrested from London in the UK.
Modi is currently lodged in a jail in London, facing extradition to India.