A United Kingdom court today extended the remand of fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi till 24th of March. Modi is fighting his extradition to India in the nearly two billion US dollar Punjab National Bank fraud and money laundering case.

The diamond merchant had made a last-ditch bail application in November last year with an unprecedented house arrest guarantee, akin to those imposed on terrorist suspects, as well as citing mental health issues from being behind bars at Wandsworth since his arrest in March 2019. But, the bail plea was turned down by Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot over continued fears of witness intimidation and failure to surrender before the court for his extradition trial this year.

Modi denies the charges of fraud and money laundering and his defence team, led by barrister Hugo Keith, has claimed that the Indian Government has wrongly blackened Modi’s name as a world-class schemer.

Modi appeared via videolink from Wandsworth Prison in south-west London for the hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London today.