A special court in Mumbai on Monday directed the CBI to file a report on the documents and articles seized by the agency in its probe against diamond merchant Nirav Modi and his associates who are accused of defrauding the Punjab National Bank of Rs 12600 crore.

The CBI so far has arrested about 18 people and registered three FIRs on complaints from the PNB.

In an application filed in the court on behalf of Kavita Mankikar, one of the accused and associate of Nirav Modi, lawyers Vijay Agarwal and Yashwardhan Tiwari argued that under section 102 (3) of the Criminal Procedure Code, the CBI is required to disclose all seized documents and articles in the case.

Kavita Mankikar was arrested last month.

"For fair investigation into the case matter, it is imperative that CBI should disclose all documents and articles which have been seized by it," argued Agarwal who has also been engaged by Nirav Modi.

The CBI told the judge that it has searched around three dozen places so far in the case. The residence of Kavita Mankikar was also searched and a copy of the seizure list was given to her husband. The agency agreed to file report seizure in connection with other accused in due course.

While allowing Mankikar's application, the court directed the investigating officer to report the seizures under section 102 (3) of the CrPC.