The Enforcement Directorate is set to 'confiscate' assets worth over Rs 15,000 crore as part of its first action against absconders such as liquor baron Vijay Mallya and diamantaire Nirav Modi under the recently promulgated Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance.

Officials said the agency has begun the work to bring together the existing cases of high-value fugitives and bank loan defaulters and it will soon approach various special anti-money laundering courts in the country to get orders issued against them under the new ordinance.

They said the money laundering cases against Vijay Mallya, who is now based in London, Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choski, Winsome Diamond company promoter Jatin Mehta and others are expected to be picked up first for action.

The ED is the empowered agency to enforce the new ordinance.

Under the new ordinance, the officials said, all the assets of such an absconder, both in India and abroad, which have or have not been attached by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), will be confiscated immediately.

The case of Modi and Choksi will be processed under the new ordinance, once the CBI and the ED file their respective charge sheets against them, they said.

While Rs 9,890 crore worth of assets have been attached by the ED in the Mallya case, properties worth Rs 7,664 have been attached in the Nirav Modi-Mehul Choksi case.

In the first go, they said, it is estimated that over Rs 15,000 crore worth of assets could be confiscated by the ED under the provisions of the ordinance, aimed at those who flee the country after defaulting on multi-crore bank loans and similar instances of fraud.

The other such cases will be taken up gradually, they added.  -- PTI