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Fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi’s bail plea was rejected for the fifth time by a UK court on Thursday. Modi is fighting extradition to India on charges of USD 2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud and money laundering case.
The 49-year-old, who has been lodged at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London since his arrest in March last year and is scheduled for an extradition trial in May, made his fifth attempt at getting bail on the basis of a change in circumstances.
However, the High Court in London rejected his bail plea.
Modi was arrested on March 19, 2019, by the Scotland Yard on charges brought by the Indian government.
Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi are the main accused in the PNB scam and they both left India before details of the fraud came to light in January 2018. In July 2018, the central agency filed an application under the newly-promulgated FEO Act to declare him a fugitive economic offender.
His lawyer earlier claimed that the ED was relying on evidence and statements recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) Act to seek a remedy under the FEO Act.
This was not permissible under the FEO Act, he said. As per the investigating agency, Nirav Modi and his uncle Choksi, in connivance with certain bank officials, allegedly cheated the PNB to the tune of Rs 14,000 crore through issuance of fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoUs).
These LoUs were allegedly issued in a fraudulent manner by a Mumbai branch of the PNB to the group of companies belonging to Nirav Modi since March 2011, till the case came to light.
Under the FEO Act, a person can be declared a fugitive economic offender if a warrant has been issued against him for an offence involving an amount of Rs 100 crore or more and he has left the country and refuses to return.