Employees of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi left in the lurch

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, February 21

Nearly 10,000 people who were employed directly and indirectly with diamantaires Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi have been thrown out of jobs without salaries and other statutory dues being paid after their properties were sealed by the investigating agencies.

According to complaints filed with Maharashtra’s labour commissioner at least 500 employees in Choksi’s Gitanjali gems in Mumbai have been asked to look for other jobs even without a notice period being given
to them.

“We have received complaints that employees of Gitanjali Gems and other companies owned by Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi have not been paid for several months,” a source from the Labour Commissioner’s
office said.

The Provident Fund Commissioner’s office will also probe whether the uncle-nephew duo were depositing the funds deducted from their employees salaries to the authorities. Should there be any default on
this account they are liable to be arrested, said sources.

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While those officially on the rolls of the companies owned by the duo have a crack at fighting their case legally, there are few options for those employed as diamond cutters and polishers in small units
contracted by them. 

According to the diamond industry, the two have arrears running into several crores of rupees with some diamond cutting and polishing units in Mumbai, Gujarat and Rajasthan.

According to reports, Choksi and Modi have only paid salaries in lieu of notice to their employees in the United States of America. These payments were made in cash while in the past salaries were disbursed
by way of cheques, according to reports.

Meanwhile Nirav Modi in an email to his employees has asked them to look for other jobs. Copies of the email circulating in the social media quotes Modi as saying that he was unable to pay them their dues
as “the near future is uncertain”.