The Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) on Monday issued notice to jeweller on the run Nirav Modi, his family members and his companies to recover over Rs 7,000 crore in dues.

Besides Nirav Modi, the notice has been slapped on his wife Ami, their children Rohin, Ananya and Apasha, his brothers Nehal Deepak Modi, Neeshal Deepak Modi, Deepak Keshavlal Modi and sister Purvi Mayank Mehta, at their last-known Mumbai addresses.

The notices by the DRT-1 Registrar, A Murali, came six months after the beleaguered Punjab National Bank (PNB) had moved the tribunal in July to recover around Rs 7,029 crore.

The accused-defendents Nirav Modi and others have been barred from disposing off, transferring, or entering into any transactions pertaining to the secured properties, the notice said.

They have been allowed time till January 15, 2019, to reply to the DRT notice, failing which the PNB plea would be decided ex-parte.

In the notice, nine companies, among them Stellar Diamonds, Solar Exports, Diamond RUS, Firestar International Ltd., Firestar Diamond International Pvt. Ltd., ANM Enterprises, NDM Enterprises, all based in Mumbai, besides the branches of some companies in Surat (Gujarat) and Jaipur (Rajasthan) have been named.

In February, PNB had admitted to a massive fraud, which later climbed up to around Rs 13,600 crore, shaking the foundations of the Indian banking sector.

It revealed shocking details of how Nirav Modi and his uncle, Mehul Choksi, in connivance with some bank officials had duped the bank by issuing fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) for the huge amount at PNB’s flagship Brady House Branch in south Mumbai, since 2011.

The bank’s plea before the DRT Mumbai came shortly after the InterPol issued Red Corner Notices (RCNs) against Nirav Modi and other accused in the case.

—India Legal Bureau