The Singapore High Court has ordered the freezing of a bank account of a firm, owned by fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi’s sister following a request by the Enforcement Directorate.

The agency in an official release said, the account, with 44.41 crore rupee deposit, was being maintained in Singapore by Pavilion Point Corporation, based in the British Virgin Island.

The company is beneficially owned by Purvi Modi Mehta and her husband Mayank Mehta, the sister and brother-in-law of Nirav Modi.  The jeweller is fighting his extradition from Britain to India in multi-million dollar Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud and money laundering case.

The 48-year-old has been lodged at Wandsworth prison in south-west London since his arrest in March. The ED said the agency had made the request on the ground that deposits in the bank account were made from proceeds of crime illegally siphoned off by Nirav Modi from the PNB.