The Directorate of Enforcement has transferred attached assets worth Rs 8,441.5 crore to public sector banks who suffered losses due to fraud by fugitive businessmen Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi.
“The agency not only seized assets worth Rs 18,170.02 crore (80.45% of total loss to banks) in the case of Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi under PMLA but also transferred a part of attached/seized assets of Rs 9,371.17 crore to the PSBs and central government,” ED said.
Elaborating on the development, Union commerce and industries minister Piyush Goyal said, “Bringing economic offenders to book and ensuring recovery of public money, assets worth more than 80% of Bank loss in cases of Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi have been attached/seized.”
Warning fugitives, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that economic offenders will be actively pursued; their properties attached and dues recovered.
Fugitives & economic offenders will be actively pursued; their properties attached & dues recovered.#PSBs have already recovered ₹1357 Cr by selling such shares.A total of ₹9041.5 Cr shall be realised by banks through sale of such attached assets.https://t.co/e6F7n8drdl https://t.co/Jw96WlfjHX— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) June 23, 2021
Vijay Mallya, owner of now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, has been facing the ED probe after his company defaulted on bank loans. While the ED and the CBI were investigating the matter, Mallya left the country on March 2, 2016 — the day banks moved the Debt Recovery Tribunal against him.
In January 2019, he was declared a fugitive economic offender under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act.
Mehul Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi, wanted in the Rs 13,500-crore Punjab National Bank loan fraud case, fled India in January 2018. Choksi, the owner of defunct jewellery giant Gitanjali Group, became a citizen of Antigua through a government-run scheme.
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