Nirav Modi indirectly challenging PMLA case through his firm: ED to HC

New Delhi, March 19

Billionaire diamantaire is "indirectly" challenging the money laundering case lodged in connection with over Rs 12,000 crore loan fraud scam that he’s currently embroiled in, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) told the Delhi High Court on Monday.

Additional Solicitor General Sandeep Sethi, representing the ED before a Bench of Justices S Muralidhar and IS Mehta, said Modi was trying to abuse the law by moving a plea through his company, Firestar Diamond International Private Ltd.

The company, named an accused in the loan fraud case, has asked for an interim stay on ED’s investigations.

Modi is currently untraceable.

The ED said that the company’s application for interim orders was "not maintainable", and said that the measure could case "grave miscarriage of justice".

"The entire purpose of the application is apparently to hinder the investigation," the ED said. "Nirav Modi is the director of the petitioner company since incorporation and is signatory to the memorandum and articles of the petitioner. He has not joined investigation pursuant to summons issued by the ED or even by the CBI. His communication has expressed that he does not intend to join investigation.

"He is a fugitive and absconder. Such a person who is evading the law and has declined to submit to the jurisdiction of the agencies is disentitled to invoke the extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution. On this ground alone, the petition deserves to be dismissed," the ED affidavit said. It also said that the agency was still conducting searches, and was not taking possession of the property attached so far in the case—a fear the company has voiced.

The affidavit also said it had reasons to believe that the company under Modi’s chairmanship had “committed acts which constitute the offence of money laundering and/ or was in possession of such proceeds of crime”.

Modi, his uncle and Mehul Choksi are currently being investigated in a scam that is currently estimated at more than Rs 12,000.

The ED booked Modi and his firms on the basis of Central Bureau of Investigation’s FIR.

The company had said in its plea: “Quash the ED action of taking away the movable property and depositing the same with the PNB bank”.

Investigators have intensified their probe, with ED seizing jewellery and assets worth thousands of crores, the Income Tax department attaching various properties, and the CBI grilling several senior executives of Modi’s and Choksi’s companies. PTI