Court declares Nirav Modi fugitive economic offender

A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Thursday declared diamantaire Nirav Modi, who is wanted in connection with a $2 billion fraud at Punjab

A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Thursday declared diamantaire Nirav Modi, who is wanted in connection with a $2 billion fraud at Punjab National Bank (PNB), a fugitive economic offender (FEO), empowering investigators to start seizing his assets in India, the United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates.

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Special judge for PMLA cases, VC Barde, declared Modi an FEO on a plea by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which investigates money laundering offences. Under the FEO Act, which came into force in August 2018, a person can be declared an FEO if a warrant has been issued against him or her for an offence involving ~100 crore or more, and he has left the country and refuses to return to face the law. The court said in its order that it appeared Modi knew of the due dates of payment of his liabilities when he left the country (on January 1, 2018).

“The material on record leads to draw inference that the respondent has left the country under circumstances rendering suspicions in behaviour in order to dodge forthcoming penal consequences of the acts he has done or committed while in India till the year 2017,” it said.

The court will now start hearings on December 10 on a list of Modi’s properties in India and abroad that are sought to be confiscated by the ED.

The court ordered that notices be issued to all the parties and adjourned the hearing to January 10.

Modi has been lodged at Wandsworth prison in south-west London, one of England’s most overcrowded jails, since his arrest in March on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard on charges brought by the Indian government, being represented by the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in court. Modi’s arrest came a little more than a year after he fled India.He is resisting India’s attempts to have him extradited.

Modi is the second person to have been declared a fugitive under the Fugitive Economic Offenders (FEO) Act after businessman Vijay Mallya, who flew out of India in March 2016 for the UK as bankers owed an estimated ~9,000 crore by Kingfisher Airlines closed in on him.

ED had sought a declaration against Modi as well as his uncle Mehul Choksi, who is a co-accused in the PNB fraud case and is in Antigua and Barbuda after fleeing India.