The country just can’t seem to get enough of Nirav Modi – the billionaire diamantaire who stole billions from the nation and perpetrated the biggest banking scam in the history of this nation worth over ₹ 14,300 crore.
With national agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI hot on his heels, he managed to escape the country, and government authorities had for some time not known his whereabouts. A national British daily newspaper, the Telegraph, caught up with Modi on the streets of London’s posh West End neighbourhood and heckled him with a few questions. Modi, sporting a handlebar mustache and donning an ostrich hide jacket worth approximately ₹ 9,00,000, calmly replied “no comment” to questions such as whether he plans to stay in London and whether he has applied for political asylum in the UK. But the most shocking part was when he was asked if he was still trading in diamonds via an entity with a different name; to which he had the same reply. On further investigation by the same media house it was discovered that the fugitive businessman was living in a luxury central London apartment whose rent is estimated to be in the range of ₹ 15,00,000 per month and has indeed started a new diamond business in Soho.
The ED, in response to this latest video has on Saturday said that the UK Government has forwarded its extradition request to a designated court for further proceeding.
This was just a day after Nirav Modi’s sprawling seaside mansion on Kihim beach at Alibaug of over 35,000 square feet and pegged to cost around ₹ 100 crore was demolished by the District Collector for being an illegal structure and flouting environmental laws.
However, recovery efforts seem to be in full swing as Nirav Modi’s well-curated art collection, which he reportedly has taken more than a decade to put together and includes a diverse range of work from both modern and contemporary, Indian and Chinese artists, will go under the hammer at a live auction on March 26th. Leading Indian art auction house, Saffronart, will put up 68 lots for sale in an attempt to recover around ₹ 96 crore owed by him to the income tax department. The catalogue is estimated by experts to be valued at around ₹ 30 – 50 crore.
One pain point for auctioneers could be that collectors may not be interested in buying an art collection that is tainted and purchased with money gotten through fraud; with one expert saying “it’s almost like buying blood diamonds or conflict diamonds”.
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