New Delhi:

Properties worth Rs 14,131 crore – that once belonged to Vijay Mallya – have been seized and handed to public and private sector banks to pay off a part of the fugitive businessman’s substantial debts, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told Parliament Tuesday.

Ms Sitharaman told the Lok Sabha the Enforcement Directorate had, in total, restored properties worth Rs 22,280 crore to pay back debts of wanted individuals like Mr Mallya, Mehul Choksi, and Nirav Modi, and that the fight against economic offenders is set to continue.

The restored sum includes Rs 1,052 crore from Mr Modi and Rs 2,565 crore from Mr Choksi. A sum of Rs 17.5 crore in the National Spot Exchange Ltd, or NSEL, case was also restored.

“In money laundering cases, the ED has successfully restored properties valued at Rs 22,280 crore… we have not left anyone. Even if they fled the country, we have gone after them.”

“… it is important to recognise we have not left (out) anybody. We will make sure the money… which has to go back to banks… will go back,” Ms Sitharaman declared.

The Finance Minister’s staunch defence of the federal agency follows question marks last week over its conviction rate; that low figure – less than five per cent over the past five years – provided Congress leader Randeep Surjewala with ammunition to attack the government in Parliament.

In response to a question asked in the House, Mr Surjewala was told the ED had filed over 900 cases under the strict Prevention of Money Laundering Act, or PMLA, from 2019 to 2023.

Of these, only 42, or 4.6 per cent, have resulted in conviction.

This, the Congress leader claimed, was proof of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s “witch hunt” against opposition leaders; the opposition has routinely accused the BJP of using federal agencies like the ED to file false charges against rival parties and politicians to silence them.

The low conviction rate was also flagged by the Supreme Court in August; the top court reprimanded the ED, saying, “You (the agency) needs to look at the quality of prosecution.”

Meanwhile, with regard to tracking down and bringing back ‘black money’, or funds illegally acquired and parked abroad, Ms Sitharaman said the Black Money Act (2015) has had a positive impact on taxpayers and Indian citizens disclosing foreign assets. She said the number of taxpayers disclosing such had gone up to two lakh in 2024/25, from 60,467 in 2021/22.

And, under that law, as of June this year, nearly 700 cases had been filed – and 163 prosecutions initiated – to bring back over Rs 17,000 crore. This, the Finance Minister, said, includes investigations into widely publicised cases like the Panama, Paradise, and Pandora leaks.

A multi-agency group is conducting a detailed investigation into these cases, she said.

Ms Sitharaman’s answers in Parliament this week also follow a sit-down last month between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart, Keir Starmer, on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Brazil. Mr Modi urged Mr Starmer to expedite the extradition of Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi. India is also trying to extradite Sanjay Bhandari, an accused in illegal arms deals.

Vijay Mallya is the primary accused in a bank loan default case and fled India in 2016, while Nirav Modi is wanted by Indian authorities for defrauding the Punjab National Bank.

With input from agencies

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New Delhi:

The Enforcement Directorate Tuesday said it has begun restituting assets worth more than Rs 2,500 crore as part of a money laundering investigation against absconding businessman Mehul Choksi in connection with the alleged Rs 13,000 crore PNB loan fraud case.

The federal agency said in a statement that it initiated the ‘restitution of assets’ to the rightful owners in this case following an order passed by a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court based in Mumbai.

“In pursuance to the order, the process of handing over of assets has been initiated and properties worth more than Rs 125 crore have been handed over to the Liquidator of Gitanjali Gems Ltd (a company of Choksi).

“The handed over properties include six flats in Kheni Tower at Santacruz in east Mumbai and two factories/godowns situated at Santacruz Electronic Export Processing Zone (SEEPZ) in the capital city of Maharshatra,” it said.

The ED has attached or seized assets worth Rs 2,565.90 crore in this PMLA case against Choksi and the court has allowed “monetisation” of all these properties.

The agency said it took “proactive steps” to initiate the restitution process and the probe agency, along with the affected banks, “agreed to take a common stand” and moved the court.

The court, on September 10, ordered that the ED would “facilitate” the banks, liquidators in different Gitanjali Group companies to carry out valuation and auction of the attached or seized properties. It also directed that after auction of the said properties, the sale proceeds would be deposited in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) and ICICI Bank (affected lenders) as fixed deposits.

Choksi has been staying in Antigua since 2018 after leaving India.

Choksi, his nephew, fugitive diamond trader Nirav Modi and their family members and employees, bank officials and others were booked by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2018 for perpetrating the alleged loan fraud at the Brady House branch of the PNB in Mumbai.

It was alleged that Choksi, his firm Gitanjali Gems, and others “committed the offence of cheating against PNB in connivance with certain bank officials by fraudulently getting the LoUs (letters of undertaking) issued and got the FLCs (foreign letter of credit) enhanced without following prescribed procedure”.

The agency has filed three chargesheets against Choksi till now.

Nirav Modi, declared a fugitive economic offender, is lodged in a London jail after he was held by the authorities there in 2019 on the basis of a legal request made by the ED and the CBI in this case. He is contesting extradition to India.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)