ED brings back diamonds, pearls worth Rs 1350 Cr of PNB scamsters Nirav, Mehul

New Delhi:The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday brought back 108 consignments of  various overseas (UAE and Hong Kong) entities of fugitive diamantaires Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi from Hong Kong, estimated to be around Rs 1350 crore.

 ''The goods, which  include polished diamonds, pearls and silver jewelry, were kept in the godown of a logistics company in Hong Kong. These consignments were brought back to Mumbai and all the consignments weigh around 2340 kg,'' the Central financial probe agency said.

 The probe agency received a credible input in July, 2018 that these consignments had been sent to Hong Kong from Dubai in early 2018.

The ED officials were continuously engaged in discussion with various authorities in Hong Kong and after finalisation of various  modalities, these valuables were brought  back to India after completing all legal formalities.

Out of 108 consignments, 32 belonged to the entities controlled by Nirav Modi, while the rest belonged to entities controlled by Mehul Choksi, the ED said.

Earlier too,  the central  financial probe agency had successfully brought back 33 consignments of valuables from Dubai and Hong Kong in the Nirav and Mehul case.

These valuables were valued on arrival and subsequently seized in India and independent valuer assessed these earlier consignments to be worth around Rs 137 Crore, the ED said, adding that valuation and seizure formalities has been under  in progress.

The Punjab National Bank scam was related to fraudulent letter of undertaking worth Rs 10,000 crore issued by the bank. 

The key accused in the case were jeweller and designer Nirav Modi, his maternal uncle Mehul Choksi, other relatives and some PNB employees. Nirav and his relatives escaped India in early 2018, days before the news of the scam became public. PNB scam has been dubbed as the biggest fraud in the country's banking history.(UNI)