Rs 19,111 cr assets attached out of total fraud by Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi & Mehul Choksi: SC told

PTI, Feb 24, 2022, 4:54 PM IST

 New Delhi: The “timely attachment” of proceeds of crime has led to the attachment of assets worth over Rs 19,000 crore out of the ”total fraud” of over Rs 22,500 crore by three fugitive offenders Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Choksi, the Centre has told the Supreme Court.

These figures were mentioned in the note submitted by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta in the apex court, which is hearing arguments on a batch of petitions concerning the interpretation of certain provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

While advancing his submissions in the matter on Thursday, Mehta, who is appearing for the Centre, told a bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar that he had yesterday referred to the attachment of assets worth over Rs 18,000 crore of these three persons.

“It is submitted that timely attachment of proceeds of crime has led to attachment of assets worth of Rs 19,111.20 crore out of total fraud of Rs 22,585.83 crore by three fugitive offenders namely Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Choksi,” Mehta has said in his note filed before the bench, which also comprised Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C T Ravikumar.

It said that out of the attached proceeds of crime from these three individuals, assets of Rs 15,113.91 crore have already been returned to the public sector banks by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the relevant provision of the PMLA through the order of the court.

The note further said that assets worth Rs 335.06 crore have been “confiscated to the Government of India i.e. 66.91 per cent of a total loss to the banks in these 3 cases has been returned back to them by the ED.” “It is pertinent to mention here that SBI has already recovered cash of Rs 7,975.27 crore by selling a part of assets returned to it by the ED. The process of liquidation of other restituted assets by the banks is continuing,” Mehta has said in his note.

The arguments in the matter would continue next week.

Some of these petitions have challenged the validity of certain provisions of the PMLA.