A special court here on Thursday declared diamantaire Nirav Modi, the key accused in the USD 2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, a fugitive economic offender, on a plea of the Enforcement Directorate. He is the second businessman after Vijay Mallya to be declared a fugitive economic offender under provisions of the new Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, which came into existence in August last year.

Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi are the prime accused in the PNB fraud case, related to alleged fraudulent issuance of Letters of Undertaking that caused a loss of over USD 2 billion to the public sector bank. Nirav Modi was earlier arrested in London and his extradition process is pending.