Ahmedabad, April 17: Diamonds worth 'Rs 1.06 crore' seized from loan fraud-accused Mehul Choksi's firm now value less than 1/10th of the amount claimed. As per the fresh evaluation conducted by the probing agencies, the diamonds now value nearly Rs 10 lakh.

The diamonds were seized from the Surat manufacturing unit of Choksi last month, in a raid conducted by the Enforcement Directorate. Over 9,000 chemical vapour depositor (or CVD) of diamonds were confiscated by the ED sleuths.

ED director Karnal Singh said the CVDs would re-evaluated independently to determine their exact costs.

The raid on Choksi's unit was conducted in connection to the scandal involving the Punjab National Bank. The diamond trader, along with his nephew diamantaire Nirav Modi, are accused of defrauding the PNB to the tune of over Rs 13,000 crores.

Both the accused are on the run since January, days before the CBI registered its first FIR in the case. While Modi's location has been traced to Nirav Modi, the whereabouts of Choksi could not be confirmed yet.

The Special ED Court has issued non-bailable warrants against the duo. The Indian agencies have reached out to their counterparts in Hong Kong seeking the preliminary arrest of Modi, followed by his extradition.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 17, 2018 08:40 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).