PNB moves DRT against Nirav to recover Rs 7,000 crore

MUMBAI: Punjab National Bank moved the debts recovery tribunal (DRT) on Wednesday to recover Rs 7,000 crore which diamantaire Nirav Modi availed through “fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs)”.

The recovery plea comes within two days of Interpol issuing a red corner notice against Modi in the multi-crore PNB scam.

The amount includes a principal component of Rs 6,800 crore of “unauthorised financial assistance’’ that Modi and his partnership firms — Stellar Diamonds, Solar Exports, Diamonds R Us and Firestar International — availed between March 10, 2011 and May 31, 2017, said the application filed before the Debts Recovery Tribunal in Mumbai.

The application filed through Nitesh Jain, partner at law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, is against the firms, the Nirav Family Trust, its trustees Nirav, his wife Ami, his brother Nishal and their beneficiaries, including Nirav Modi’s children.

This is the first such recovery proceeding initiated by PNB for the “fraudulent” loss.More applications will be filed soon for more recoveries, it is learnt. On May 30, Nirav Modi, responding to PNB’s demand notice, claimed the LoUs were issued legally, “in an authorized manner”.

Modi, wife Ami (a US citizen), brother Nishal (a Belgian citizen), and uncle Mehul Choksi had left India in January before the CBI registered an FIR on January 31.

Punjab National Bank