The United Kingdom has confirmed that Indian diamantaire Nirav Modi, who is at the centre of a money laundering case linked to the over Rs 13,000 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, is currently in that country, top officials said on Monday.
UK Minister Baroness Williams has also assured Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, at a meeting here, Britain’s full cooperation in the Government of India’s efforts to expedite Nirav Modi, liquor baron Vijay Mallya and others extradition.
“UK authorities have confirmed Nirav Modi’s presence in Britain,” an official privy to the meeting said.
Modi, who is absconding and has not joined the ED probe in the case till now, and others are being probed under various criminal laws after the fraud came to light this year following a complaint by PNB that they allegedly cheated the nationalised bank to the tune of over Rs 13,000 crore, with the purported involvement of a few employees of the bank.
“I had a very useful meeting with UK Minister Baroness Williams. We discussed about India-UK joint efforts to deal with terrorism and extremism. We also agreed to cooperate in the matters of extradition and sharing of information,” Rijiju told reporters after the hour-long meeting.