Nirav Modi-owned Firestar Diamond International's diamonds, jewellery to go under hammer on Mar 25

Gold, platinum, diamond and jewellery of Firestar Diamond International, owned by fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, will go under the hammer on March 25, according to a sale notice.

The sale notice has been issued by Santanu T Ray, who was appointed as a liquidator of Firestar Diamond International Private Limited by the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in February 2020.

The affairs of the company is managed by Ray.

The sale of gold, platinum and diamond jewellery will take place through e-auction on March 25, as per the notice.

The reserve price of the items to be auctioned will be declared on the date of the auction.

According to the e-auction document, the inventory includes finished jewellery, loose diamonds and colour stones, semi-finished jewellery, gold, platinum and silver.

The liquidator has engaged Gemmological Institute of India to determine the value of the precious items.

As on the liquidation commencement date, Nirav Deepak Modi and Haresh Vrajlal Shah were the only directors/signatories of the corporate debtor as per the MCA records, as per the e-auction document.

Nirav Modi has been absconding from the country from early 2018 and the offices/factories and all other major and substantial assets of the corporate debtor had been attached by the Enforcement Directorate.

Pulling off one of the biggest bank frauds in the country, Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi created a complex web of deception through fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) to siphon off Rs 14,000 crore from state-owned Punjab National Bank in connivance with some bank officials.

Nirav Modi fled India in 2018 to evade the law days before a case was registered against him and his associates.

After multiple twists and turns in a protracted legal case, Nirav Modi lost his appeal against extradition to India last November as the High Court in London ruled that his risk of suicide is not such that it would be either unjust or oppressive to extradite him to face charges of fraud and money laundering.