Fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, a prime accused in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, told a court here on Saturday that he cannot return to India due to safety concerns and also because his case “has been politicised.”
‘Avoid liability’
In his reply, filed through his lawyer, to the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) application filed on July 10, 2018, seeking to declare him as a fugitive under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEOA), Mr. Modi said, “the motivation for the prosecution by PNB is (a) the desire of the bank (the Complainant) to avoid its liability towards its co-bankers; (b) to put the blame on previous actions by present management to avoid any criticism regarding poor financial performance by PNB Bank.”
Mr. Modi further said that the motivation for his prosecution by the bank is, “Deriving of political mileage by the ruling party by claiming clean up and to project itself as a strong headed party having zero tolerance for corruption and claiming the recovery of the public money, lost by opposition party in whose regime the funding was granted, by attaching assets.”
Terming ED’s allegations as frivolous, Mr. Modi said ED has concealed and intentionally suppressed replies sent by him. He said, “they have summoned the alleged fugitive accused three times on February 15, 17 and 22, 2018 which were duly replied by him.”
He said, “various correspondences were exchanged between him and PNB wherein he proposed to settle the amounts due, however ED while filing the application under the Fugitive Economic Offender Act has not even mentioned about the said correspondences.”
He goes on to say, “he is a NRI and usually travels and stays abroad for work. When he left, PNB had not filed a case and hence he had no reasons to leave the country. Moreover, the ED has merely mentioned that Mr. Modi left under ‘suspicious circumstances’ without even giving any explanation/elaboration as to what those ‘suspicious circumstances’ are.”
His reply states, “It is clear that it is merely a bald assertion made in a callous manner by one of the premier investigating agencies like ED” and that he “never refused to come to India but was forced to remain abroad which fact was clearly communicated to the agency.”
Emulating his uncle, Mehul Choksi, Mr. Modi said, “there is fear of life and safety as violent threats are illustrated by the burning of his effigy.”
