The High Court in London on Wednesday ordered the extradition of diamond merchant Nirav Modi to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering of an estimated $2 billion in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam case.
Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert J, who presided over the appeal hearing earlier this year, delivered the ruling.
The 51-year-old businessman, who is behind bars at Wandsworth Prison in south-east London, was allowed to appeal against District Judge Sam Gozzi’s Westminster Magistrates Court ruling in favor of extradition last February.
Permission to appeal to the High Court under Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) was granted on two grounds, to hear arguments that Modi’s extradition would be unjust or unjustified because of his mental state and Section 91 of the Extradition Act. Will it be oppressive or not? 2003, also related to mental illness.
Modi is the subject of two sets of criminal proceedings, with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a case relating to a large-scale fraud on PNB through fraudulent letters of credit (LoUs) or loan agreements, and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case relating to the proceeds of that fraud. related to purification.
He also faces two additional charges of “destruction of evidence” and criminal intimidation of witnesses to cause death or intimidation, which were added to the CBI case.
