Patna: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday expanded its operations in Bihar against diamond merchant duo Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi and raided three jewellery showrooms - two in Muzaffarpur, and one in Kishanganj - and claimed to have seized diamond jewellery worth Rs 1.5 crore.

Nirav and Mehul are accused in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, which surfaced earlier this month.

The ED claimed it had seized diamond jewellery worth Rs 4.57 crore from Bihar, including the spoils from Monday's raids.

Sources in the ED said that involvement of some legislators and political leaders is also coming to fore and sleuths have been given the task to unearth further details. These MLAs and leaders are suspected to have invested money in the raided jewellery shops and franchises, although it is not clear how they can be accused of wrongdoing given that the scam came to light only recently and before that Nirav and Choksi ran what seemed to be a legitimate business.

"We raided a showroom of Nakshatra diamond jewellery at Motijheel Road in Muzaffarpur. It is owned by one Amar Pandey, who also happens to be a transporter, owns a Renault automobile showroom and has stake in the newly opened Patna One Mall in the state capital," an ED official told The Telegraph under cover of anonymity.

Showrooms of Gitanjali Gems, one each in Muzaffarpur and Kishanganj, were also raided during the day.

The ED official pointed out that Gitanjali, Nakshatra, D'damas, Gili, Asmi, Sangini, Maya, Giantti, World of Solitaire and Shuddhi brands of diamond jewellery are owned by the Gitanjali Group owned by Choksi, who is a maternal uncle of Nirav Modi.

"Sleuths have discovered the same modus operandi during the raids. Diamond jewellery was supplied on credit to the shops, which sold them and returned the money after taking a fixed commission on the proceeds. The transactions happened through point persons of Nirav and Mehul," an ED source said.

The ED sleuths claimed they are finding it increasingly hard to discover diamond jewellery during the raids.

"Santosh Kumar Hota, who acted as a point person for Nirav and Mehul for Bihar, has instructed all the showrooms concerned - that have received diamond jewellery on credit from the duo - to remove or hide them," an ED official said.

He, however, said that more raids could happen in Bihar as inputs were coming from Mumbai and the ED headquarters in New Delhi.