UK court docket clears extradition of Nirav Modi, says he has a ‘case to answer in India’

Landing a significant blow to fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, a UK court docket Thursday dominated {that a} prima facie case has been established in opposition to Modi and that he has a case to reply for in India.
The Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London will ship on Thursday an order on the extradition of fugitive diamond dealer Nirav Modi, who’s accused of routing transactions of about Rs 13,600 crore by way of fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) of Punjab National Bank (PNB) alongside along with his uncle Mehul Choksi, to India.
Both Nirav and Mehul had left India within the first week of January 2018, weeks earlier than the rip-off was revealed.
Apart from giving the primary order on his extradition, the court docket may also determine if he must be granted bail. Over the final two years, the Magistrates’ Court has rejected his software for bail 5 occasions, and the High Court has performed the identical twice. He was arrested in March 2019, and he’s at the moment lodged in Wandsworth jail in southwest London.
Today’s order would be the first evaluation of the allegations of fraud in opposition to him, and can check the standard of the proof submitted by the CBI and the ED. The order will lay the muse for the extradition battle within the UK between Nirav Modi and Indian investigators who’ve been on his path since February 2018, when the PNB rip-off got here to mild.
Modi is the topic of two units of legal proceedings, with the CBI case regarding a large-scale fraud upon PNB by way of the fraudulent acquiring of LoUs or mortgage agreements, and the ED case regarding the laundering of the proceeds of that fraud. The ED has alleged that Modi diverted over Rs 4,000 crore of the Rs 6,519 crore excellent fraudulent LoUs issued by PNB to his corporations, by way of 15 “dummy companies” based mostly within the UAE and Hong Kong.
He additionally faces separate legal proceedings in (i) a CBI case associated to the alleged PNB-LoU fraud, and (ii) an ED case on the laundering of the proceeds of the alleged fraud at PNB. Based on the ED’s grievance, Nirav Modi can also be dealing with costs of “causing” evidence-tampering and “criminal intimidation” of witnesses.
The fugitive diamond dealer has, nonetheless, denied any wrongdoing and has advised the UK court docket that getting LoUs is commonplace apply for firms.
His attorneys have submitted authorized opinion from retired High Court judges and authorized consultants in India, stating that the cost of dishonest isn’t made out, as CBI has said that PNB officers have been “hand-in-glove” with Nirav Modi in issuing LoUs. The attorneys have additionally submitted authorized opinion on the problem of destruction of proof and intimidation of witnesses by Nirav Modi.
As a part of arguments in opposition to extradition, they’ve mentioned that Nirav Modi suffers from extreme melancholy.
On January 8, the court docket heard detailed arguments from each side about why Modi’s deteriorating psychological well being situation does or doesn’t meet the Section 91 threshold of the Extradition Act 2003 which has most just lately been used within the UK to dam the extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on the grounds of it being unjust and oppressive as he’s a excessive suicide danger.
As within the Assange case, the problems right here evidentially are the identical the psychological situation of Modi and the remedy he would obtain given the jail situations in India, mentioned Montgomery, pointing to her shopper’s extreme melancholy and danger of suicide as a result of his prolonged incarceration since March 2019 and referred to as for his discharge.
The CPS challenged the defence stance to say that the 2 circumstances have been of a very completely different nature and as an alternative sought an adjournment within the occasion that Section 91 was to be engaged, to permit an impartial analysis of medical information by a guide psychiatrist and applicable assurances be acquired by way of his care in India.