London: Nirav Modi, a diamond trader who scammed over 14,000 crore rupees in Punjab National Bank (PNB) along with his maternal uncle Mehul Choksi, has suffered a major setback in the British court. The court has accepted the plea of India and ordered the extradition of Nirav. The court also said that there is enough evidence against Nirav Modi and he can be proved guilty.
Nirav Modi, 49, appeared via video conferencing from Wandsworth Prison in south-west London at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
District Judge Samuel Goozee, while delivering the verdict, dismissed issues raised by Nirav Modi regarding mental health. The court said that Barrack 12 at Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai is fit for Modi and that he would not be denied justice after his extradition to India.
On arguments made by Modi’s lawyers that he suffers from severe depression, the judge ruled that such symptoms are not unusual in a man in his circumstances. He further ruled that Modi would be given adequate medical treatment and mental health care in the jail.
The court also dismissed Modi’s claim that Union Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad tried to influence the case against him.
Nirav Modi was arrested on an extradition warrant on March 19, 2019, and has appeared via videolink from Wandsworth Prison for a series of court hearings in the extradition case.
His multiple attempts at seeking bail have been repeatedly turned down, both at the magistrates’ and high court level, as he was deemed a flight risk. He is the subject of two sets of criminal proceedings, with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case relating to a large-scale fraud upon PNB through the fraudulent obtaining of letters of undertaking (LoUs) or loan agreements, and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case relating to the laundering of the proceeds of that fraud.
He also faces two additional charges of “causing the disappearance of evidence” and intimidating witnesses or “criminal intimidation to cause death”, which were added on to the CBI case.