Fugitive diamond trader Nirav Modi, accused of PNB scam and money laundering, has received a major setback from the UK court. The court has dismissed his petition seeking a stay on his extradition to India.
The High Court judge, after reading the application submitted, decided that there was no ground to appeal against the Westminster Magistrates’ Court’s February decision to block Modi’s extradition to face charges of fraud and money laundering. .
Billionaire diamond trader Nirav Modi and his associates approached a Punjab National Bank branch in 2011 for a line of credit to import uncut diamonds. Normally the bank issues LoUs that is Letter of Undertaking for payment for imports from abroad, but some employees of PNB Bank allegedly issued fake LoUs to Nirav Modi’s companies keeping the bank management in the dark.
Not only this, the conspirators, misusing the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, gave the green signal to release the funds to Nirav and Mehul Choksi.
The matter came to light after seven years when these corrupt officials retired and Nirav Modi’s company requested to start a similar facility again in January 2018.
The new officers caught the fraud and launched an investigation to unravel the scam. Subsequently, Punjab National Bank filed a complaint against Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and their associates for the first time in January 2018. The CBI has initiated a probe into the case against Nirav Modi, his wife, brother, nephew and business partner, alleging criminal conspiracy.
