Government cancels passports of Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi : Top 10 developments

The passports of celebrity diamond designer Nirav Modi and uncle Mehul Choksi, the primary accuse of a staggering bank fraud, has been cancelled by the government. The Foreign Ministry gave orders to revoke the passports issued by the government amid a massive crackdown on companies connected to the billionaire businessman by half-a-dozen central agencies investigating Nirav Modi and his uncle.

The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday said that 21 properties including a 5,000 square feet luxury penthouse in south Mumbai’s upscale Worli locality and a farmhouse on the outskirts of the city had been seized.

Here are the top 10 developments in Nirav Modi bank fraud case:

1. ED has seized residential and commercial properties that include a solar plant linked to Nirav Modi and his firms. The market price of those properties has been put at over 523 crores. Along with the ED’s valuation of assets, the total value of the jewellery, gold, silver, diamonds and other assets are valued at 6,300 crores. The agency has reportedly seized nearly 10,000 imported watches stacked in 176 steel almirahs, 158 boxes and 60 plastic containers.
2. Nirav Modi had allegedly worked with bank officials to illegally obtain Letters of Undertaking, which were cashed overseas from different banks. Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and their family left the country in the first week of January. The government has decided to cancel Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi passport in order to force them to return.
3. This week, CBI nabbed PNB officials including Rajesh Jindal, the previous head of the bank’s Brady House branch in Mumbai which was the epicentre of the fraud. PTI reported that the CBI started interrogating PNB managing director Sunil Mehta and an executive director in this case.
4. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley have assured to go after people who steal public funds with the full might of the state. Without mentioning any names, both leaders have also hit at sloppy bank management and the banking sector regulator.
5. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley assured that complete investigation will be implemented in the bank fraud case. Earlier, the government-funded bank had tried to put the whole blame for the fraud at branch-level officials.
6. Jaitley said that periodic surfacing of bank frauds push to background the reforms and entire effort of making it simpler to do business in India while the flaws on the economy take a front seat.
7. As the report of bank fraud spiked, the government issued a strong condemnation. Along with the 3,700 crores Rotomac loan fraud that it was investigating, the CBI this week registered cases against a jeweller, a businessman and a public servant on complaints by three different banks this week, an official said on Saturday.
8. Dwarka Das Seth International, a Delhi-based diamond jewellery export, has been accused of a 390 crores fraud by the Oriental Bank of Commerce. Last year in August, the state-run bank had approached the CBI and now its owner Sabhya Seth had shut shop and fled the country.
9. As per reports, Sabya Seth had allegedly round-tripped funds via fake companies in foreign countries and utilised funds by discounting bills based on the letters of credit of either non-existent foreign banks or those with negative ratings.
10. Congress president Rahul Gandhi used Sabya Seth’s fraud case to renew his attack on PM Modi. “Under Modiji’s ‘Jan-Dhan Loot Yojana’, another scam! 390 crore, involving a Delhi-based jeweller. Same Modus operandi as Nirav Modi. Fake LOUs,” Gandhi tweeted. “Predictably, like Mallya and Nirav, this promoter too has disappeared while the Govt looked the other way,” he added.