Described as India's diamond king in a Forbes article in 2016, Nirav Modi was not a celebrity for public consumption till 10 days ago when the CBI booked him on the complaints filed by the Punjab National Bank (PNB). He was known only to an elite club of powerful businessmen, politicians and diamond buyers.

Nirav Modi was booked by the CBI on February 5 in connection with the cheating case that involved transactions of Rs 280 crore. Today, PNB reported that it had detected fraudulent transactions worth around Rs 10,000 crore.

The CBI today received two complaints from PNB against Modi, however, it is unclear if the complaints were linked to the banks revelation today that it had detected USD 1.8 billion (over Rs 10,000 crore) fraud.

The Forbes had described Nirav Modi as one of the youngest billionaires of India. He is the founder of USD 2.3 billion Firestar Diamond and has business spread across three continents from China in Asia to Hawaii Islands in North America.

He made it to the Forbes' list of billionaires in 2013 and has remained in the exclusive group ever since. In the Forbes' list of billionaires for 2016, Nirav Modi was ranked 1,067 in the world and 46 in India. He was ranked 1,054 globally and 82 in India a year ago. Nirav Modi was born in a family of diamond merchants.

Nirav Modi diamond rings. (Photo: niravmodi.com)

Nirav Modi grew up in Belgium's Antwerp, the diamond capital of the world. He dropped out of Wharton School of Pennsylvania in the US to take up diamond business. He launched his first flagship store in Delhi in 2014 followed by one in Mumbai, where his firm's headquarters are located.

In 2016, Nirav Modi opened a store in New York near Madison Square with much fanfare. Those who attended the store opening included Hollywood actor Naomi Watts, Bollywood actors and models Lisa Haydon and Nirmrat Kaur and top fashion model Coco Rocha. Actor Priyanka Chopra is the brand ambassador for his jewellery designs.

Actor Priyanka Chopra endorses Nirav Modi's jewellery brand. (Photo: niravmodi.com)

Wikipedia page on Nirav Modi says that he is first Indian jeweler to occupy the cover of both Sotheby's and Christie's catalogs. He has promoted diamonds not simply as jewellery but also as investment.

His first brush with law came into public knowledge when income tax officials conducted multiple raids on his properties. The I-T sleuths searched his offices in Delhi, Surat and Jaipur on January 31, two days after the PNB sent a written complaint to the CBI in the fraud case.