India’s fugitive diamond trader Nirav Modi has got a big setback from the UK court. UK High Court has rejected Nirav Modi’s application to appeal against extradition to India. Here, 40 per cent of the losses incurred by the banks in the fraud cases related to the Punjab National Bank scam and fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya’s defunct Kingfisher Airlines have been recovered by selling the shares attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Enforcement Directorate (ED) said this.
The ED said the Debt Recovery Authority, on behalf of the State Bank of India-led consortium, which gave money to Mallya as loan, sold shares worth over Rs 5,800 crore of United Breweries Ltd, which were earlier attached by the agency under the provisions of PMLA. was.
The attachment was earlier made by the ED as part of its criminal probe against 65-year-old Mallya, who is now in the UK and his plea against extradition to India has been rejected. The ED said that prior to the DRT’s action, the agency, on the directions of a special PMLA court in Mumbai, transferred the attached shares of UBL worth around Rs 6,600 crore to the SBI-led consortium by it.
It said that Mallya and fugitive diamantaires Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi involved in the PNB scam “defrauded public sector banks by diversion of funds through their companies, causing a total loss of Rs 22,585.83 crore to the banks”. The ED said that so far the agency has attached properties worth Rs 18,170 crore in these two bank fraud cases.
It is worth mentioning that Mehul Choksi and his Nirav Modi are accused of fraud of Rs 13,500 crore in connivance with some bank officials. Nirav Modi is currently lodged in a jail in London, while Choksi is in the prison of Dominica. The Central Investigation Agency is investigating against both of them and is trying to bring them to India.