UK High Court will hear diamond merchant Nirav Modi’s appeal against his extradition order on June 28. Modi, who is wanted in India for allegedly being involved in Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case, had appealed against his extradition from the UK to India on mental grounds, claiming that he has high-risk of committing suicide.
Edward Fitzgerald QC, representing Modi, has argued that Modi was at high risk of suicide already and his health is only likely to worsen in Mumbai. According to sources, these comments from Fitzgerald come even after the Indian government has given assurances about the conditions in which Modi will be detained if he surrendered. It is said that the Indian government will offer Modi comfortable facilities and would be able to care for his physical and mental health.
Modi’s initial hearing for the appeal took place in a court of Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay in December last year. Second hearing is scheduled for June 28.
In February 2021, District Judge Sam Goozee’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court had ruled in favour of Modi’s extradition. Modi has appealed against this ruling on mental grounds. Hearing in June is the continuation of this appeal.
Meanwhile, 51-year-old Modi has been detained and is in Wandsworth Prison in south-west London since March 2019.
Nirav Modi was named in a chargesheet filed by the CBI in connection with the PNB scam in 2018, in which fraudulent transactions worth US $1.80 billion have been discovered.
