UK High Court hears diamond merchant Nirav Modi plea

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A British court on Tuesday opened the continuation appeal hearing in the extradition case of Nirav Modi , who is wanted in India on the charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to an estimated USD 2 billion in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam case.

The 51-year-old diamond merchant had lodged an appeal last year against his extradition order on mental health grounds.

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Nirav Modi, an Indian diamond merchant who is at the center of a $2 billion fraud investigation in the United Kingdom, pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of cheating investors out of their money. The high-profile case has raised questions about how Mr. Modi was able to run one of India's most successful diamond businesses for so long and whether officials there were aware of his alleged wrongdoing.