india

Updated: Mar 26, 2019 10:54 IST

A firm owned by diamantaire Nirav Modi moved the Bombay high court (HC) on Monday, challenging the decision of a special court to allow the auction of the artworks belonging to the jeweller, who has been arrested in London. The three-day auction is scheduled to begin on Tuesday.

Last week, the special court for offences registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), allowed the Income Tax (I-T) department to auction the artworks, primarily 68 modern Indian art paintings, to recover I-T arrears of over Rs 95 crore from Camelot Enterprises, a purpoted shell company formed by Nirav and controlled by another Punjab National Bank fraud accused, Hemant Bhatt.

A law firm, India Law Alliance, which has filed the appeal, stated the I-T department’s demand to auction the paintings is unlawful. A lawyer associated with the firm said that they have contended that most of the paintings do not belong to the firm, and therefore the revenue department cannot auction them to recover old tax dues.

The lawyer also said that the appeal was mentioned by them for urgent hearing before a division bench of Justice Akil Kureshi and Justice Sarang Kotwal on Monday, and the bench has now posted the matter for hearing on Wednesday.

The paintings were provisionally attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) which is probing the money laundering angle to the massive Rs13,500 crore PNB fraud. The I-T department has seized about 170 paintings.

Nirav was arrested on March 19 in London by the Scotland Yard on behalf of the Indian authorities, and is being held at a London prison currently.