new delhi feb 16 central probe agencies cbi and ed today continued their crackdown in a rs 11400crore bank fraud case involving billionaire jewellery designer nirav modi and family registering a fresh case against his maternal uncle mehul choksi and claimed to have seized ornaments worth rs 549 crore during raids the cbi immediately after registering the fresh fir carried out raids at 26 locations across six cities covering the premises of 18 indian subsidiaries of gitanjali group owned by choksi in a parallel action the enforcement directorate ed claimed to have seized precious stones worth rs 549 crore registered a fresh case under the stringent money laundering act against choksi and others and barred overseas outlets of nirav modi from carrying out any business the central bureau of investigation cbi which formed a special team headed by a deputy inspector general has registered the fresh fir against gitanjali group promoter mehul choksi in connection with alleged fraud in the issuance of letter of understanding lou worth rs 11400 crore from staterun punjab national bank the cbi said that the new fir alleges issuance of 143 lous worth over rs 4886 crore fraudulently to three companies of choksi gitanjali gems nakshatra and gili during the period 201718 an lou is a letter of comfort issued by one bank to branches of other banks based on which foreign branches offer credit to buyers the cbi also questioned four officials of punjab national bank bechu tiwari chief manager posted at nariman point branch mumbai during february 201517 dgm sanjay kumar prasad who was then agm at brady house branch during period 201617 chief manager of zonal audit office mohinder kumar sharma who was then concurrent auditor during nov 2015janurary 17 and manoj kharat then single window operator during november 2014decemeber 2017 the officials said the ministry of external affairs mea has already suspended passports of nirav modi and choksi for four weeks on the request of the enforcement directorate in its complaint punjab national bank has alleged that 293 letters of understanding worth rs 11400 crore were fraudulently issued to the companies of nirav modi and mehul choksi from one its branches in mumbai expanding the ambit of the first fir registered on january 31 against the billionaire diamond merchant and choksi the agency has included the amount of rs 6498 crore issued through 150 letters of understanding the remaining rs 4886 crore issued through 143 lous will be part of probe under the new fir registered today according to the agency fir registered today lous worth rs 2144 crore were issued in favour of gitanjali gems rs 566 crore in favour of gili and rs 321 crore in favour of nakshatra they said adding that against these lous letters of credit were issued to the three companies by overseas branches of indian banks besides rs 575 crore of foreign letters of credit or flcs were issued to gitanjali gems rs 625 crore of flcs to gili and