New Delhi, June 27: The authorities in Switzerland have frozen four Swiss bank accounts of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi and his sister Purvi Modi on request of Enforcement Directorate.
These four bank accounts reportedly have deposits totalling Rs 283.16 crore. The request to freeze these accounts was made under the PMLA Act.
The money in these accounts could be "proceeds of crime" of the PNB fraud for which Nirav Modi is wanted in India. He is currently in a London prison and has approached the courts in UK four times for bail. All his bail pleas were rejected. On June 11, Nirav Modi, who is lodged in the Wandsworth prison in west London, had approached the Royal Courts of Justice for the fourth time for bail. The plea was rejected. Nirav Modi was arrested by Scotland Yard officers in central London on March 19 and faces extradition to India as the "principal beneficiary" of the fraudulent issuance of letters of undertaking (LoUs) as part of a conspiracy to defraud PNB and then laundering the proceeds of crime. The diamond merchant has been behind bars at one of England's most overcrowded prisons - Her Majesty's Prison (HMP) Wandsworth.