In a strong crackdown on economic offenders and fugitives, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday announced that it had seized assets worth Rs.18,170.02 crore in the cases pertaining to Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Choksi. The agency has seized assets worth ₹ 18,170.02 crore, which include assets worth of ₹ 969 crore located in foreign countries.
The value of those assets represents 80.45% of the total bank loss. In addition to this, the Enforcement Directorate has also transferred a part of the attached/ seized assets of Rs. 9371.17 Crore to the PSBs and Central Government. All these fugitives have been accused of duping public sector banks to the tune of Rs 22,000 crores. The ED said that it unearthed the money trail by exposing a web of domestic and international transactions and stashing of assets abroad. The investigation revealed that the three accused used dummy entities controlled by them for rotation and siphoning off the funds provided by the banks, it said. In Vijay Mallya’s case in particular, the ED stated that it has already transferred shares attached by it (worth of Rs. 6,600 crore approx.) to SBI led consortium as per the order of PMLA Special Court, Mumbai earlier this month.
On their extradition front, the Enforcement Directorate informed that prosecution Complaints have been filed against all the three accused after completion of PMLA investigation and extradition requests have been sent for these persons to UK and Antigua and Barbuda.
