The Enforcement Directorate has filed a supplementary chargesheet in connection with the money laundering case against diamond trader Nirav Modi, accused in the ₹13,000 crore Punjab National Bank fraud.
The fresh chargesheet, submitted in court on February 28, focusses on the financial trail involving the bank accounts of several shell companies, located abroad, that were used to route funds.
A significant portion of the money siphoned off through the fraudulently issued Letters of Undertaking from the PNB’s Brady House branch in Mumbai had been transferred to such companies and then to accounts of Nirav Modi and his father Deepak Modi.
The findings are based on the information received from abroad, in response to the Letters of Request sent by the Enforcement Directorate.
The chargesheet was filed days before the United Kingdom’s Home Office informed the ED that India’s request for Nirav Modi’s extradition had been referred to the Westminster Magistrate Court for the District Judge to initiate further proceedings.
The ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation may soon get in touch with the British Crown Prosecution, through the Ministry of External Affairs, for extending assistance in the extradition case. The agencies will also request the U.K. Police to detain Nirav Modi on the basis of an Interpol Red Notice issued against him.
