The Enforcement Directorate Friday said it has attached gems, jewellery and bank deposits worth Rs 253.62 crore of companies linked to fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi as part of a money laundering probe.

All these moveable assets are in Hong Kong, the agency said in a statement.

Some assets of Nirav Modi group of companies in Hong Kong were identified in the form of gems and jewelleries lying in private vaults and bank balances in accounts maintained there and these have been provisionally attached under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), it said.

Nirav Modi, 50, is presently lodged in a UK jail and has lost his extradition plea to India in connection with the USD 2-billion PNB fraud case that is also being investigated by the CBI.