INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The court is expected to take cognisance of the 12,000 page charge sheet on Monday.New Delhi: The ED is set to move a special court in
Mumbai to seek permission for "immediate confiscation" of about Rs 7,000 crore assets of designer diamond jeweller Nirav Modi under the
country, will seek an official declaration to categorise Nirav Modi as a "fugitive" based on its prosecution complaint (charge sheet) filed
sheet in the over $2 billion PNB fraud case involving diamantaire Nirav Modi and his associates stating that over Rs 6,400 crore of bank
funds were allegedly laundered abroad to dummy companies by him and others
A total of 24 accused have been listed in the charge sheet, filed under section 45 of the PMLA, including Nirav Modi, his father, brother
Neeshal Modi, sister Purvi Modi, brother-in-law Mayank Mehta and the designer jewellers' firms--Ms Solar Exports, Stellar Diamonds and
subsequently seek its permission to invoke the provisions of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance against Modi and immediately begin
the procedure to confiscate all the assets "of and linked to" Modi in India and abroad, a senior official told PTI
A court-issued non-bailable warrant is already pending against Modi and the ED has also moved the Interpol to get a global arrest warrant
Enforcement Directorate and the CBI had filed their respective charge sheets last year
It is expected, the official said, that assets worth Rs 7,000 crore can be confiscated in the money laundering and the Punjab National Bank
work to bring together the existing cases of high-value fugitives and bank loan defaulters for getting them notified under the new
takes a long time of many years
The ordinance is aimed at deterring economic offenders from evading the process of law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian
The Modi government brought the ordinance last month as "there have been instances of economic offenders fleeing the jurisdiction of Indian
the government had said, was the absence of such offenders from Indian courts which hampers investigation and wastes court time and
undermines the rule of law
"The existing civil and criminal provisions in law are not entirely adequate to deal with the severity of the problem," it had said
The Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on March 12 but couldnt be taken up due to logjam in Parliament
With Parliament being adjourned sine die, an ordinance was proposed
ordinance makes provisions for special courts under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 to declare a person as a fugitive economic
"A Fugitive Economic Offender is a person against whom an arrest warrant has been issued in respect of a scheduled offence and who has left
India so as to avoid criminal prosecution, or being abroad, refuses to return to India to face criminal prosecution," the government
However, only cases of frauds, cheque dishonour or loan default of over Rs 200 crore would come under this ordinance
The ordinance provides for necessary constitutional safeguards in terms of providing hearing to the person through counsel, allowing him
the new law would help banks and other financial institutions to achieve higher recovery from financial defaults committed by fugitive
economic offenders, improving the financial health of such institutions
The ED would take the same action of notification under the fugitive offenders ordinance after filing a second charge sheet against Modi's
uncle and jeweller Mehul Choksi and his businesses, who are also accused in this case
Nirav Modi, who is absconding and has not joined the ED probe in the case till now, and others are being probed under various criminal laws
after the fraud came to light this year following a complaint by the Punjab National Bank that they allegedly cheated the nationalised bank
to the tune of over Rs 13,000 crore, with the purported involvement of a few employees of the bank
story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
