The UK authorities have confirmed that celebrity Indian jeweller Nirav Modi, who allegedly used letters of credit (L/Cs) and letters of understanding (LoUs) to defraud India's Punjab National Bank (PNB) of US$2 billion, is in their country.

India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will now send an extradition request to the UK's home office.

Red Corner Notice

The CBI has also asked the UK authorities to detain Modi because Interpol issued a Red Corner Notice against him in June 2018.

At the beginning of the year, Modi, along with his uncle Mehul Choksi who is also implicated in the alleged fraud, moved abroad just a few days before India's biggest banking scam was revealed.

No cooperation

Citing business and health reasons, Modi and Choksi have said they would not return to India to cooperate with investigations into the banking fraud.

Modi, his companies and others allegedly conspired to obtain credit from the overseas branches of Indian banks using fraudulent L/Cs and LoUs issued by the Brady House branch of PNB in Mumbai.

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or Coastline Solutions.