Palanpuri prodigals, who love to work in secrecy

Shiv Kumar in Mumbai

The close-knit Palanpuri Jain community in Rajasthan (and parts of Gujarat) which controls the country’s diamond trade works in secrecy. The richest among them are seldom featured on Page 3 of newspapers though Bollywood’s A-listers frequently grace their weddings. Likewise, their companies are mostly closely held with hardly anyone from the outside world getting a peek at their account books. Even disputes among the members of the diamond trading fraternity are settled behind closed doors.

The prodigals from the community who veer from the norm often come to grief. Often cited is the case of Bharat Shah, the diamond merchant who ventured into film production in the 1990s. Known for big budget and cutting-edge films alike, Shah’s luck ran out at the turn of the millennium. Fourteen-month jail term later, Shah slunked out of the country never to be heard again. 

It was more than a decade before Nirav Modi, 47, surfaced on the Page 3 circuit. Little is known of NiMo’s beginnings except that he came to India when he was 19 and was taken under the wings by his uncle Mehul Choksi, owner of Gitanjali Gems whose Gili brand of jewellery even gave the venerable Tanishq from the House of Tatas a run for its money.

The buzz in the diamond trading community is that Nirav Modi’s beginnings were rather modest: his earliest cutting and polishing unit had just 15 employees to begin with. By 2010, Nirav Modi made a string of acquisitions of well-known names in the diamond business.

“We do not know who funded Nirav Modi’s international businesses as the margins in the diamond cutting and polishing line are not so great,” says a diamond merchant from Mumbai. The buzz is that few even within the Palanpur Jain community knew anything about either Modi or his uncle Mehul Choksi. While Choksi took out full-page ads to promote his brands like Gili and D’damas, Modi roped in celebrities like Priyanka Chopra in India to promote his Nirav Modi brand launched in 2010. In all about 15 stores have been launched in various cities including Hong Kong, London, New York and Beijing. In interviews Modi spoke about opening 100 stores by 2025.

Those in the trade sniggered. Many wondered why Nirav’s outlets were not crowded even during Diwali even as South Mumbai’s celebrities flocked to his parties. The old-timers in the trade often ask where his money came from.