3 minutes of readingBombayFebruary 11, 2026 11:00 pm IST
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sought to initiate proceedings under the Fugitive Economic Offenders (FEO) Act against four more accused in the alleged multi-crore Punjab National Bank fraud case, including two brothers of main accused Nirav Modi.
The ED has filed separate applications before the special court in Bombay seeking to have brothers Neeshal Modi and Nehal Modi, allegedly linked to the accused companies that are part of the investigation, along with Sandeep Mistry, director of one of Modi’s companies in Hong Kong and Aditya Nanavati, a senior executive of the Firestar Group, which manages the operations of Modi’s businesses in Hong Kong, be declared fugitive economic offenders.
The law allows authorities to confiscate your property in the country even before the trial begins. The 2018 Act aims to seize and confiscate properties and assets of economic offenders, such as loan defaulters, who have fled the country and have not been present in criminal proceedings against them.
The trial in the case, in which Modi and others are accused of allegedly making illicit financial gains by issuing fraudulent letters of undertaking from the public sector bank, is yet to begin. The ED had also earlier filed a petition to declare Modi as an FEO. In 2019, the court allowed the ED’s plea to declare him FEO under the law.
Earlier, the special court had issued a non-bailable order against the absconding accused in the case and also found them guilty.
Against Neeshal, the agency had claimed that he was a partner in companies like Diamonds R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamond and had been actively involved in appointing fictitious partners in these companies in 2016; and had also been a director of Firestar Diamond, in which the ED had claimed huge sums of money were transferred from Hong Kong-based companies.
The ED had claimed that money from the alleged fraud was diverted and laundered to several foreign companies. He also claimed that Nehal had participated in concealing the laundered amount.
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In 2025, US authorities arrested Nehal following an extradition request filed by India. Nirav is currently in the UK facing extradition proceedings and his uncle, Mehul Choksi, who is also accused in a similar case, is also facing extradition proceedings in Belgium.