NEW DELHI: Fugitive diamond merchant
Nirav Modi has been remanded in custody for another 28 days. The 48-year-old businessman is facing extradition proceedings in the United Kingdom in connection with the multi-billion dollar Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud and money laundering case.
The next hearing in the matter will be on May 24, the Westminster Magistrates' Court said while adding that the full hearing will take place on May 30.
Nirav Modi has been behind bars at
Wandsworth prison
in south-west London
after he was arrested on March 19 .
During the course of the hearing last month, it emerged that he had made death threats to witnesses and also attempted to destroy evidence such as mobile phones and a server holding "material critical to the fraud".
His defence team, the same as that deployed by former Kingfisher Airlines boss Vijay Mallya in his extradition case, denied the allegations and said their client saw the UK as a "haven where his case will be fairly considered".
He is believed to have been living in the UK on an 'investor visa', applied in 2015 -- at a time when the so-called 'golden visa' route was relatively easier for super-rich individuals to acquire residency rights in the UK based on a minimum of 2-million pound investment.
Nirav Modi along with his family left the country in January last year, much before the
PNB scam was unearthed.