Fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi’s bail application was denied by a UK court on Wednesday for the fourth time.
The London court was hearing the extradition case of Nirav Modi in the $1 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud and money laundering case.
Judge Ingrid Simler at the Royal Courts of Justice said there were substantial grounds to believe that Modi will fail to surrender.
Moreover, the judge felt that there could be interference with the witnesses and obstruction of justice.
Modi had left India in January last year when the CBI started investigating the PNB scam case.
His uncle Mehul Choksi also fled India in the same month.
Nirav Modi has already been denied bail thrice by the Westminster Magistrates’ Court, as the judge ruled there was “substantial risk” that he would fail to surrender and deemed the bail security offered as insufficient.
According to investigating officials, Modi had left India on January 1, 2018, much before the CBI received a complaint from Punjab National Bank (PNB) on January 29, 2018, about the fraud.
The 48-year-old was arrested earlier this year by Scotland Yard officers on an extradition warrant from a Metro Bank branch and has been behind bars at Wandsworth prison in south-west London since then.