Nirav Modi to be extradited to India: UK court rules in favor of India in Rs. 14,000 crore scam
A UK court on Thursday ordered the extradition of fugitive Nirav Modi to India wanted for fraud and money laundering in the ₹ 14,000-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, after a nearly two-year-long legal battle and accepted the Indian case that he threatened witnesses and tampered with evidence.
District Judge Samuel Goozee at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court also accepted the prima facie evidence against Modi for money laundering. “Many of these are a matter for trial in India. I am satisfied again that there is evidence he could be convicted,” the court said.
The judge indicated the case for the high-profile jeweler to face trial in India was strong. He said there were clearly links between Nirav Modi and other connivers including bank officials in clearing Letters of Undertaking that facilitated huge unpaid loans.
“Mr Modi personally subsequently wrote to PNB acknowledging the debt and promising to repay. The CBI is investigating that Nirav Modi firms were dummy partners,” the judge noted. These companies were shadow companies operated by Nirav Modi, he said.
“I do not accept that Nirav Modi was involved in legitimate business. I find no genuine transactions and believe there is a process of dishonesty.”
The 49-year-old was expected to appear via video link from Wandsworth Prison in south-west London at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where District Judge Samuel Goozee handed down his judgment on whether the jeweller has a case to answer before the Indian courts.
Modi’s legal battle marks one of a number of high-profile extradition cases involving accused Indian economic offenders in the UK. While former Kingfisher Airlines boss Vijay Mallya remains on bail as a “confidential” matter related to his extradition to India is resolved, accused arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari’s extradition case is scheduled for its next hearing in April.
In February 2020, wanted cricket bookie Sanjeev Chawla was extradited to face charges in India and became the first extradition of its kind under the India-UK Extradition Treaty, signed in 1992. A previous extradition of Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, wanted in connection with the Godhra riots in Gujarat, from the UK to India in October 2016 had been uncontested and therefore did not have to go through various levels of appeals in the UK courts.
