Singapore court orders to staple Nirav Modi assets worth Rs 44 crore

Singapore, July 3: The Singapore high court on Tuesday ordered to attach bank account having balance Rs 44.41 crore on request of the enforcement directorate (ED) in Nirav Modi Case. The account was in the name of Nirav Modi’s sister Purvi Modi Mehta, spelling greater trouble for the prime accused in the ₹14,356 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam.

 

“The Singapore high court has ordered the freezing of $6.122 million ( ₹44.41 crore) in the bank account maintained in Singapore by Pavilion Point Corporation, British Virgin Island, a company beneficially owned by Maiank Mehta (brother-in-law) and Purvi Modi," the ED said.

This was done on the request of the probe agency as the “deposits in the bank account were made from proceeds of crime, illegally siphoned off by Nirav Modi from the Punjab National Bank", the ED added.

In March, the ED had filed a supplementary charge sheet in the PNB case with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mumbai, claiming that “ ₹1,201.18 crore, or $175.1 million, were diverted with the active participation of Purvi Mehta".

Recently, responding straight to ED’s appeal, the Government of Switzerland moved up freezing all the Swiss Bank accounts of Modi, containing USD 6 million in total.

It is approximately four months ago that the ED had called the Switzerland Government to freeze Nirav Modi’s accounts after it traced the transfer of Rs 286 crore from Punjab National Bank (PNB) to Swiss Bank. The Directorate had claimed that the whopping amount was sent through layers, first to Dubai, then Hong Kong and further to Switzerland.