NEW DELHI: Fugitive billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi was last seen in Britain in March, Indian federal investigators said Monday.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing a multi-billion dollar scam allegedly involving Modi, who is worth $1.73 billion according to Forbes, placing him 85th on India’s rich list. “Request letters were written to six countries, namely USA, France, Singapore, Brussels, UAE and UK.
Only UK replied to request letter stating Nirav Modi was last seen on March 31 there,” CBI spokesman Abhishek Dayal told AFP. Media reports in India and Britain in the last few days have said that the jeweller had sought asylum in Britain for what he called “political persecution”. Local reports said that Modi even managed to travel after his passport was revoked by the government.
Modi’s high-end eponymous brand has stores in several major world cities and boasts celebrity customers including actresses Naomi Watts and Kate Winslet and Bollywood megastar Priyanka Chopra. He fled India in February for an unknown location after he was accused of being at the centre of a $1.8 billion fraud involving India’s second largest public lender, Punjab National Bank (PNB).
The 47-year-old and his uncle and business partner Mehul Choksi, also a diamond merchant, allegedly defrauded PNB out of 2.8 billion rupees ($43.8 million).
