India asks group of countries to deny entry to Nirav Modi

India has requested a group of countries to deny entry to diamantaire Nirav Modi, who is wanted in a money laundering case, related to multi-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, Ministry of External Affairs Raveesh Kumar said on Thursday.

Nirav is reportedly in the UK and needs to be extradited as non-bailable warrants (NBW) has already issued against him.

Addressing media here, the MEA spokesperson said, "We have sent messages to a group of countries requesting them to help the Indian government in denying entry to Nirav Modi and to inform us if he is residing in that country. So far we have not received any extradition request in respect of Nirav Modi."

Kumar further clarified that Nirav was not in a possession of more than one passport and said, "Nirav Modi was issued a fresh passport only after his previous passport was physically cancelled. At no stage, he had more than one valid passport in his possession. In February his passport was suspended and eventually revoked."

For the unversed, the PNB detected a 1.77 billion dollars scam, in which jeweller Nirav Modi acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from one of its branches for overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

The scam was started in 2011 and detected in the third week of January this year, after which the PNB officials reported it to the concerned probe agencies- the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate, which are investigating the matter.