Nirav Modi’s sis to help return Rs5.79b assets to India

Fugitive Indian diamantaire Nirav Modi’s sister Purvi Modi, alias Purvi Mehta, and her husband Maiank Mehta have filed an application before the Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mumbai for allowing them to seek pardon under Sections 306 and 307 — ‘an accomplice is a competent witness to the crime’ — of the Criminal Procedural Code (CrPC).

They undertook to make true and full disclosure of the circumstances and events without concealing any evidence and provide all documents. Purvi Modi has also agreed to assist in realising and repatriating various assets in India and abroad totalling to ₹5.79 billion to the Indian government.

The assets in Purvi Modi’s name or in the names of companies owned by her include a flat at Breach Candy at Bhulabhai Desai Road in Mumbai, the estimated price of which is ₹195 million, and an apartment at Central Park South in New York in the name of a trust, which is worth ₹360 million.

She is a member of a trust that has a sum of ₹1.82 billion in its account. Purvi Modi has a bank account in Switzerland, where ₹168 billion is parked. Another account of hers in Switzerland has ₹1.08b. She also owns a flat at Marylebone Road in London, which is worth ₹620 million.

A Belgian national, Purvi Modi also holds a bank account at the Nariman Point branch of Syndicate Bank in Mumbai, where ₹19.6 million is parked.

Prosecution complaints were filed by India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) against Purvi Modi, Mehta and others in the bank fraud case allegedly perpetrated by Nirav Modi in January 2018. The ED investigation revealed that Purvi Modi has more than a dozen bank accounts and has ownership of various companies and trusts abroad. The couple have categorically stated that all the companies, properties and accounts mentioned in the prosecution complaints, except Pavillion Point Corporation, belong to Nirav Modi.

She has offered all cooperation to repatriate the assets to India. Both the accused stated that the funds channelised through their accounts belong to Nirav Modi. The Special PMLA court has allowed for a grant of tender of pardon under Sections 306 and 307 of the CrPC on condition of making full and true disclosure and further allowed that the accused shall be marked as an approver in this case.

The court has directed that “the applicant-accused shall appear before the court by returning to India, for which purpose the complainant-prosecution shall facilitate the approach of the accused at earliest, and shall take suitable steps accordingly”. Further investigation is in progress.

Nirav Modi, who is presently lodged in a London jail, his uncle Mehul Choksi and others are being probed by the ED in the Punjab National Bank money laundering case since 2018. The ED had also got notified an Interpol global arrest warrant against her in 2018.

Nirav Modi, Choksi and others are being probed by the ED for money laundering charges since 2018 for allegedly perpetrating an over $2 billion (more than ₹130 billion) bank fraud in connivance with bank officials and by issuance of fraudulent letters of undertaking at the Brady House PNB branch in Mumbai.

Nirav Modi, 49, is presently lodged in a London jail after his arrest there in 2019 and the legal process to extradite him to India on money laundering charges is currently on. He has been declared a fugitive economic offender by a Mumbai PMLA court on December, 2019. The agency till now has attached assets worth Rs 23.48 billion (assessed value) of Nirav Modi, under the PMLA, in this case.

— With inputs from PTI, sandhya@khaleejtimes.com