MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Wednesday heard Rohin Modi, son of Nirav Modi, on his challenge to confiscation of the south Mumbai triplex penthouse at Samudra Mahal, by ED, without giving him a chance to be heard as its beneficial owner.
His counsel Abhimanyu Bhandari said Rohin, now an adult, was the beneficiary of the trust that owns the property and the confiscation order flouted principles of natural justice as he was not heard. The confiscation also flouted an earlier order which assured that a notice would be given, he said during a virtual hearing.
For ED, additional solicitor general Anil Singh said he was a minor when proceedings were on to declare Nirav a fugitive economic offender but his parents had participated in proceedings. The ED counsel submitted that it was clear the property belonged to Nirav and Ami Modi, who purchased it for Rs 24 crore when the trust had a corpus of only Rs 1,000 and the document bears their signatures.
Rohin’s case was also that the property was acquired in 2006, before the alleged offence of 2011. His counsel said the law specifically allows a beneficiary of the trust to go to trial and demonstrate the property being attached has nothing to do with proceeds of crime.