Indian businessman Nirav Modi a step closer to extradition, loses appeal in UK court
Indian diamond businessman Nirav Modi who fled the country after allegedly cheating a government bank of over ₹ 11,000 crore, is a step closer to being extradited to India from the UK.
Nirav Modi, 51, had appealed against being sent back to India to face trial in the massive fraud case linked to Punjab National Bank (PNB), reports NDTV.
The London High Court on Wednesday (9 November) delivered the verdict that allowed the fugitive businessman's extradition to India.
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"...We are far from satisfied that Nirav Modi's mental condition and the risk of suicide are such that it would be either unjust or oppressive to extradite him," the court said, according to news agency PTI.
The process to bring Modi from London to Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail still has some way to go. His uncle, Mehul Choksi, who has taken up citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda, is also accused of scamming PNB and wanted by Indian agencies.
Modi can approach Britain's Supreme Court against the High Court's order within 14 days. But there's a catch - he can appeal in the Supreme Court only if the high court agrees that his case involves a point of law of general public importance.
If this option is spent, Modi is free to approach the European Court of Human Rights.
His legal team hasn't said what they plan to do next after today's setback.
In the meantime, the fugitive businessman will remain at the London jail where he was first kept after he was arrested in March 2019.
Modi is wanted by both the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate. The fugitive and the firms he controlled allegedly leveraged the loopholes in the banking system by seeking letters of undertaking, or LoU, and raising credit from foreign banks to pay its merchants.
An LoU is a bank guarantee issued for overseas import payments. For years, Modi and his three firms had been allegedly taking LoUs from PNB. These bank guarantees allegedly helped Modi raise short-term loans from foreign branches of Indian banks to pay to suppliers of raw material. The money was then transferred through a maze of sorts.
