PNB fraud case: I-T dept to question high profile clients of Nirav Modi

NEW DELHI: The Income tax department will question many regular clients of Nirav Modi as various raids conducted by the agency has exposed names of many Bollywood celebrities and politicians, who used old notes to purchase expensive jewellery and diamonds after demonetisation was announced on November 8, 2016.

“During the searches conducted in their offices and stores across the country, what came to our notice was that immediately after demonetisation, a lot of cash purchase happened at his stores, which was done by very high profile buyers. As we were assessing these purchases, there were purchases worth Rs 193 crore, which were done by only cash. Some were his regular clients and others were new names,” a senior official from the IT Department told Express.

According to the IT official what raised their suspicion that bulk of these purchases were of diamonds and solitaires, and jewellery above Rs 20 lakhs, which they suspect were bought to dispose their unaccounted cash.“In fact, purchase of diamonds alone accounted for Rs 158.49 crore, all in cash. Rest were designer jewellery pieces which was above Rs 20 lakh, which was also paid in cash,” the official added.

The official added that even other agencies (ED and CBI) are scanning bulk of documents seized during various raids conducted since last 15 days. It can reveal more names involved in bulk cash purchase“In the buyers there are names of many politicians and B-Town celebrities. A bulk of these purchase happened from the Mumbai and Delhi stores and in cash. Checks were used in very small purchases. We have identified some of the names and are preparing a list. We will be soon sending notice, if the purchase fails to match their returns we will initiate action against them,” the official said.

The tax sleuths are planning to question some of the regular buyers as well as diamond suppliers to track the bulk purchase of diamonds in cash. Modi’s jewellery collection were hot favourite among the B-town celebrities and big corporates. On an average his collection was priced from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 50 crore, and with clientels like Kate Winslet, Deepika Padukone, Liza Hayden among others and brand ambassadors like Priyanka Chopra, his jewellery were most sought after, at Hollywood red carpets and high profile parties in India, making him a well known name.