LONDON: Nirav Modithe fugitive diamond trader who sought trial in India for fraud and money laundering has claimed he has no money and is resorting to borrowing money to pay court-ordered legal fees of more than £150,000 .
The 52-year-old ex-billionaire lost his legal battle in Britain’s top court last year against his extradition to India in the estimated $2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam case. But his case would now be “statute-barred,” pointing to further pending lawsuits.
Meanwhile, Nirav is behind bars in Wandsworth Prison in southwest London, from where he appeared via video link on Thursday for a hearing at East London’s Barkingside Magistrates’ Court for unpaid legal fees or £150,247 fines imposed by the High Court . in London, in connection with his extradition proceedings.
At a procedural hearing for court fines, officials said magistrates accepted his plea to be allowed to pay £10,000 a month before a review hearing in six months’ time.
When asked how he planned to fund the monthly amount, Nirav told the court that he borrowed money because he did not have sufficient funds as his assets in India were frozen due to the extradition procedure.
In December last year, a two-judge bench at the Royal Courts of Justice in London rejected Nirav Modi’s request for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court on grounds of suicide risk and also refused his request for a point of law to be certified, thus securing his extradition. rounded. remedies in the UK courts.
This case could be the subject of further litigation, UK Home Office sources have said, likely pointing to a parallel confidential process for political asylum applications.
At a final extradition appeal hearing in the case at London’s High Court in November 2022, Judges Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Judge Robert Jay ruled that they were “far from satisfied that Mr Modi’s mental state and risk of suicide are such that it would be unjust or oppressive to hand him over.”
Their verdict also accepted that the Government of India will treat its assurances about Nirav’s medical care after extradition and detention at Barrack 12 of Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai with “due seriousness”.
The rejection of the appeal came three years after Nirav Modi was arrested in March 2019 on an extradition warrant based on Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) allegations against the businessman.
There are three sets of criminal proceedings against the diamond merchant in India: the CBI case of fraud on the PNB which caused a loss of more than £700 million, the ED case concerning the alleged laundering of the proceeds of that fraud and a third series of criminal proceedings against the diamond trader in India. criminal proceedings involving alleged interference with evidence and witnesses in the CBI proceedings.
The then UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel, had ordered Nirav’s extradition on the basis of Judge Sam Goozee’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court ruling in April 2021.
The 52-year-old ex-billionaire lost his legal battle in Britain’s top court last year against his extradition to India in the estimated $2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam case. But his case would now be “statute-barred,” pointing to further pending lawsuits.
Meanwhile, Nirav is behind bars in Wandsworth Prison in southwest London, from where he appeared via video link on Thursday for a hearing at East London’s Barkingside Magistrates’ Court for unpaid legal fees or £150,247 fines imposed by the High Court . in London, in connection with his extradition proceedings.
At a procedural hearing for court fines, officials said magistrates accepted his plea to be allowed to pay £10,000 a month before a review hearing in six months’ time.
When asked how he planned to fund the monthly amount, Nirav told the court that he borrowed money because he did not have sufficient funds as his assets in India were frozen due to the extradition procedure.
In December last year, a two-judge bench at the Royal Courts of Justice in London rejected Nirav Modi’s request for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court on grounds of suicide risk and also refused his request for a point of law to be certified, thus securing his extradition. rounded. remedies in the UK courts.
This case could be the subject of further litigation, UK Home Office sources have said, likely pointing to a parallel confidential process for political asylum applications.
At a final extradition appeal hearing in the case at London’s High Court in November 2022, Judges Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Judge Robert Jay ruled that they were “far from satisfied that Mr Modi’s mental state and risk of suicide are such that it would be unjust or oppressive to hand him over.”
Their verdict also accepted that the Government of India will treat its assurances about Nirav’s medical care after extradition and detention at Barrack 12 of Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai with “due seriousness”.
The rejection of the appeal came three years after Nirav Modi was arrested in March 2019 on an extradition warrant based on Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) allegations against the businessman.
There are three sets of criminal proceedings against the diamond merchant in India: the CBI case of fraud on the PNB which caused a loss of more than £700 million, the ED case concerning the alleged laundering of the proceeds of that fraud and a third series of criminal proceedings against the diamond trader in India. criminal proceedings involving alleged interference with evidence and witnesses in the CBI proceedings.
The then UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel, had ordered Nirav’s extradition on the basis of Judge Sam Goozee’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court ruling in April 2021.
