Nirav Modi Sister’s Plea For ED To Intervene In US Bankruptcy Matter Rejected

A special court on Monday rejected the petition of Purvi Mehta, the sister of PNB scam-accused Nirav Modi, seeking direction to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to intervene in the bankruptcy proceedings being conducted before a US court.

Mehta filed a petition in March 2022, claiming that her properties are also being taken into consideration by a US court in the bankruptcy proceedings initiated against her brother.

ED attached these properties during the money laundering investigation in accordance with the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act of 2002.

As a result, she asked the special Fugitive Economic Offenders (FEO) court, which is dealing with the confiscation of the attached properties, to intervene in the bankruptcy proceedings involving her properties worth around Rs 200 crore.

Purvi claimed that the bankruptcy proceedings in the United States were overlapping with the current proceedings in India concerning her properties.

But according to the ED, the agency has already submitted relevant documents to the US court.

Purvi and her husband Maiank, both had approached the special PMLA court through their lawyers in November 2020, seeking pardon and approval in the money-laundering case filed against Nirav Modi.

According to the ED, Nirav Modi diverted approximately 1201.18 crore (175.1 USD million) through his sister Purvi.  The chargesheet claimed that Purvi was an active participant in the generation of criminal proceeds and the activity of money laundering.

Purvi is also said to have been a director of companies in Dubai and Hong Kong that received funds generated by fraudulent Letters of Undertaking obtained by Nirav Modi from a public sector bank.

Nirav Modi is the main accused in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, for which he was declared a fugitive economic offender in December 2019. In June 2020, a court issued a confiscation order for all properties that ED claimed were part of the proceeds of crime and were purchased with tainted money.