Billionaire diamond tycoon Nirav Modi in 2016. Modi, who fled India last year, has been tracked down in London. Photo / Getty Images
A billionaire diamond tycoon who is India's most wanted man has been tracked down by The Telegraph to an £8 million (NZ$15 million) apartment in London's West End.
Nirav Modi fled India last year after becoming a suspect in the biggest banking fraud in the country's history.
Modi, 48, a diamond jeweller whose designs have been worn by Hollywood stars, went on the run after being accused of defrauding £1.5 billion (NZ$2.8 billion) from a state-run bank.
An Interpol red notice was issued on the request of the Indian authorities in July for Modi's arrest but he has continued to remain at large.
But The Telegraph has now tracked the jeweller down to a three-bedroom flat occupying half of a floor of the landmark Centre Point tower block, with views across London. The rent for a property like this is understood to be about £17,000 (NZ$32,500) a month.
India's authorities have frozen his businesses bank accounts while a string of boutiques - including a flagship store in Old Bond Street - have been shut down.
Yet The Telegraph can disclose that Modi is now involved in a new diamond business run from an office in Soho, just a few hundred yards from his new apartment. The business, which was incorporated last May, is linked to his flat in Centre Point although he is not listed as a director at Companies House.
Modi, who has grown a handlebar moustache since becoming a fugitive, takes a daily walk from his flat to his new office with his dog. When the Telegraph spoke to him, he was wearing a jacket made from Ostrich hide, costing at least £10,000 (NZ$19,000).
The Telegraph has also learnt from a well-placed Government source that Modi was given a National Insurance number in recent months by the Department for Work & Pensions and has been able to operate online bank accounts in the UK while wanted by Indian authorities. He has also been in contact with a wealth management company based in west London, which specialises in advice to rich foreigners.
The ability of Modi to continue living a privileged lifestyle in London will raise serious questions potentially threatening a rift between the UK and India.
It is not clear why the British Government has given him a National Insurance number and yet has apparently failed to act on the Interpol red notice. A Red Notice is a request to locate and provisionally arrest an individual pending extradition.
It is not an international arrest warrant and Interpol cannot compel any member country to arrest an individual who is the subject of a Red Notice. One possibility put to the Home Office by The Telegraph is that Modi may have applied for asylum in the UK. The Home Office said it does not comment on individual cases.
When approached by the Telegraph after leaving his new offices, Modi repeatedly answered 'no comment' to a series of questions put to him by the newspaper.
An employee at the diamond company told The Telegraph: "There is very little we can say. We are prohibited by an NDA [non disclosure agreement]."
The employee was then summoned away and came back, replying: 'No comment' to every question put to her.
India is reported to have requested Modi's extradition.
The Home Office has declined to comment on the case while courts have no record of any extradition case being opened against Modi.
The Interpol Red Notice - 'a request to locate and provisionally arrest an individual pending extradition' - names Nirav Deepak Modi as "wanted by the judicial authorities of India". It includes a photograph and his date of birth. The red notice lists a string of charges that includes "criminal conspiracy, breach of trust, cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, corruption, and money laundering."
Modi could be seen this week on the phone at the window of his new offices. The business describes itself on Companies House as a wholesale trader in watches and jewellery and a retailer of watches and jewellery in specialised stores.
Modi is accused, along with his uncle Mehul Choksi, of defrauding Punjab National Bank.
It is alleged that Modi and his associates, acting in connivance with junior bank officials, had fraudulently acquired Punjab National Bank guarantees without approval, that they later used to obtain loans from overseas branches of Indian banks.
Modi, through his lawyers, has protested his innocence.
At the peak of his wealth, Forbes estimated that Modi was worth £1.3 billion (NZ$2.5 billion). But a string of assets have been seized by Indian authorities including at least one Rolls Royce and a Porsche, as well as jewellery, paintings and watches.
Properties in India - including a seaside bungalow which was demolished yesterday because it didn't have proper planning permission - as well as apartments in New York and London, worth £30 million (NZ$57 million) have also been seized by India's Enforcement Directorate. It is alleged that stolen money was used to buy the London flat.