Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 2
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today confirmed that it has managed to get order from the Singapore High Court to freeze bank deposits worth Rs 44.41 crore, kept in that country by PNB fraud accused Nirav Modi’s sister and brother-in-law, as part of its probe under PMLA in India.
The ED officials said, the bank account is in the name of Pavillion Point Corporation, which is based in the British Virgin Islands. The company is “beneficially owned” by Purvi Modi and Maiank Mehta, the sister and brother-in-law of Nirav Modi, who is currently under arrest in London, they added.
The High Court has put a freeze on deposits of $6.122 million (Rs 44.41 crore) following the ED’s request on the ground that the money was “proceeds of crime” illegally siphoned of by Nirav Modi from the Punjab National Bank (PNB), the ED said in a statement, but did not specify about the timing of the order.
The, order, incidentally, has come a week after four Swiss bank accounts, holding deposits of Rs 283.16 crore, of Nirav Modi and Purvi Modi were similarly “frozen” by authorities in Switzerland as part of this case.
The ED in September last year issued a provisional attachment order under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) with regard to the bank account in Singapore and the same was confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority of the law in March this year.
ED officials said the agency had made request to Singaporean authorities to freeze the account and had sent official documents of the attachment order to be perused by the officials and the High Court of that country. They said, in that country the High Court has “original and appellate jurisdiction” in civil and criminal cases.
They added that the highest court of law in that country is the Supreme Court comprising of the high court and the court of appeal.
Centre in SC against HC’s Choksi order
- The Centre on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court challenging a Bombay High Court order which sought fugitive Mehul Choksi’s medical report to ascertain if he was fit to be extradited to India to face trial
- Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the HC order may have an adverse impact on the government’s effort to extradite Choksi
- The SC said it would consider the government’s submission
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2J59uHT
via Today’s News Headlines
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