Image: IANS

The Debt Recovery Tribunal-I in Mumbai has put up a solar power plant belonging to a group entity of the absconder diamantaire Nirav Modi to try and recover a tiny portion of the whopping dues of over ₹2,348 crore.

The solar power plant, with a capacity of 5.247MW is situated at Khandale village in Karjat Taluka of Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district, and along with the plant and machinery, the solar plant is valued at ₹12.40 crore.

The auction ordered by the DRT-I recovery officer Ajeet Tripathi on Sept 21 makes no mention of the revenues assessed on the property, whether it has any encumbrances or faces any claims, or any other details.

Other possessions under the hammer

Besides, also going under the hammer for at least the third time is Nirav Modi’s posh flat in the fashionable Pedder road of south Mumbai.

The flat is on the second floor of Grosvenor Building, and proposed to be auctioned off as a fully furnished residence along with two parking lots, all collectively valued at ₹11.70 cr.

In addition, the DRT-I plans to auction off two large land-parcels belonging to Nirav Modi and his group company, Firestone Trading Pvt Ltd.

The plots are situated at different locations in Khandale Village, Karjat Taluka of Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra, and one of the properties also houses the (aforementioned) solar power plant on it, which is being auctioned off separately.

As far as encumbrances are concerned, both these land parcels are currently mortgaged with the Union Bank of India, presumably in lieu of the loans it had extended to the diamantaire and his group companies.

The online auction shall be held on Oct 25 between 2-4 p.m. only, for all the listed assets, as per the DRT-I’s notification, and these properties shall be auctioned off on ‘as is where is’ and ‘as is what is’ basis.

Nirav Modi’s scam 

Billed as the biggest banking fraud in recent Indian history, the PNB first admitted to the ₹14,400 cr plus scam in Jan 2018, after which probe agencies, including the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) launched their investigations.

The prime accused were the ‘mama-bhanja’ duo of Mehul Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi, plus their family members, business associates and entities, bank officials, and others.

The banks, individually and as consortiums, have been desperately attempting to recover their dues, by auctioning off vehicles, expensive artefacts, paintings, Modi’s huge seaside bungalow ‘Roopanya’ in Alibaug (Raigad) was demolished in March 2019, and efforts on to auction off various properties-assets seized from the ‘mama-bhanja’ tricksters.

However, long before the scam exploded on the Indian banking industry and sparked a nationwide furore, many of the accused had sneaked out of the country and Nirav Modi is currently in London and Mehul Choksi is in the tiny nation of Antigua  Barbuda Isles in the Caribbean region, and efforts are on to get them extradited to India.

(Source: IANS)

-Edited for style

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