United States: Indian authorities have presented their legal response to an application filed by fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi for permission to appeal against his extradition order to the UK Supreme Court. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which represents the Indian government in UK courts, was to file a response to the High Court in London by Monday on the 51-year-old diamond merchant’s plea against being extradited to India. The charges are facing in the estimated $2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam case.
After losing his initial appeal to the High Court on mental health grounds, further appeals were filed by his lawyers last month, with a two-judge bench ruling that his suicide risk did not warrant extraditing him from the country. would be either unjust or oppressive. The trial on charges of fraud and money laundering will move from Wandsworth Jail in London to Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai.
CPS confirmed, “We have met the December 5th deadline.” The High Court in London will now decide whether to allow an appeal “on paper”, without a hearing. The process is likely to take a few weeks and is not expected to be completed this year.
The CPS said, “If they refuse to certify a question and leave to appeal, that is the end of the road. If they certify the question but refuse permission, that is the end of the road.” apply directly to the Supreme Court.”
Modi’s appeal based on a point of importance to the general public is a high threshold that is not met very often. On 9 November, Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay, who presided over the appeal at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, ruled that they were “far from certain that Mr Modi’s mental state and suicide The risk is such that it would be either unjust or oppressive to extradite him”.
His decision found every reason to accept that the Government of India (GoI) would treat his assurances on Modi’s medical care at Barrack 12 of Arthur Road Jail with “due seriousness”. UK Home Office sources have indicated that it is unknown if and when the extradition could take place as Modi still has legal challenges.
If his attempt to have his appeal heard at the Supreme Court fails, Modi could, in theory, apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to block his extradition on the grounds that he would He will not receive a fair trial and will be detained in conditions breaching Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which the UK is a signatory.
The threshold for an ECHR appeal is also very high as it must also demonstrate that its arguments have previously been rejected on those grounds before UK courts. The High Court’s dismissal of the appeal last month against the businessman, who has been in jail since his arrest on an extradition warrant in March 2019, marked a major victory for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
There are three sets of criminal proceedings against the diamond merchant in India – the CBI case of fraud on PNB, which caused losses of over £700 million, the ED case relating to the alleged laundering of the proceeds of that fraud and the third set of CBI proceedings Criminal proceedings involving alleged interference with evidence and witnesses. Britain’s then Home Secretary Priti Patel had ordered Modi’s extradition in April 2021 based on the Westminster Magistrates Court’s decision by Judge Sam Gozzi and the case is now going through the process of appealing that extradition order.
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