Corp Affairs Min seeks attachment of all assets of Choksi, Nirav cos

In a fresh development to the Government’s chase in Nirav Modi's Rs 11,400-crore fraud case, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has sought attachment of all movable and immovable assets of 114 companies run by Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi.

“We have approached National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to freeze and attach all movable and immovable assets of Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi and his family members, such as Nirav Modi, Ami Modi and Nischal Modi. Besides, we are also looking to attach foreign assets of Choksi and Nirav companies as well,” sources in the Ministry told The Pioneer.

The move of the Ministry comes at time just after regulating body of chartered accountants ICAI wrote to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs requesting it to ask all key agencies involved like SEBI, CBI, ED and PNB to share their findings to enable it to accelerate the action against any chartered accountant who have played any role in this fraud.

Meanwhile, ICAI has also written to the banking regulator Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asking it to provide the list of the corporate borrowers of public sector banks which have an outstanding loan amount of Rs 2,000 crore and above.

“The list would be examined by the Financial Reporting Review Board of ICAI for any possible violation of applicable standards of accounting as well as auditing,” said the sources.

Recently, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also had said that auditors failed to detect the fraud. He also called on ‘supervisory agencies’ to see if further checks needed to be put in place to prevent a re-occurrence and criticised those who flouted the rules.

Cracking down on the mega bank scam committed by Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, the Income Tax Department had on Thursday seized Gitanjali Gems’ Rs 1,200 crore SEZ unit in Hyderabad. ICAI has also issued showcause notices to the auditors of PNB and Gitanjali Gems.

With such developments, reports also claimed that PNB has roped in PwC to look into India's biggest banking fraud and to make a case against absconding jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. When asked about the development, a top official in PNB denied about such development in the bank, saying that they have not yet hired PwC for examining the scam.