Patna: The extensive network of diamond entrepreneurs Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi in Bihar have become a headache for the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The agency is now considering asking all jewellers who are a part of the network to surrender the diamonds they have received from the duo, accused in Rs 11,400 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam.
A senior ED official told The Telegraph on Wednesday that there were two modules of diamond sales operations by Nirav and Mehul. One was the franchise way, in which a point person supplied diamond jewellery on credit to the franchise owners, who would in turn sell, return the money, and get commission on the proceeds.
The second module was more unofficial.
Jewellers who did not have franchises of Gitanjali, Nakshatra, D'damas, Gili, Asmi, Sangini, Maya, Giantti, World of Solitaire and Shuddhi brands of diamond jewellery owned by Mehul and in which Nirav supplied his diamonds, were also given jewellery on credit. They would sell them, return the money, and get commission on proceeds.
"There are over 50 such jewellers under the second module," said a senior ED official. "It is practically very difficult to conduct searches and raids on the establishments of all these jewellers.
"We are thinking of asking all of them to surrender the diamond jewellery received from Nirav-Mehul to the ED's Patna zonal office after giving a self-declaration. That way, they would also escape penalties that we might impose with regard to the PNB case," the official added.
Majority of these jewellery shops are located in Patna, Gaya, Muzaffarpur and Bhagalpur, while a few are located at places such as Purnea, Katihar, Kishanganj and Bhojpur.
On Wednesday, sleuths from the Patna zonal office of the ED conducted a search at the Pantaloons retail chain unit in Patna to look for Nirav's diamonds. Though no diamond jewellery was found, the sleuths seized various documents.
An ED source said that the central agency was trying to arrest Nirav-Mehul's nodal persons in Bihar to gather more details about their operations.
