New Delhi: News agency ANI reported that the UK High Court is going to hear the extradition appeal of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi on Tuesday.
Billionaire fugitive jeweler Nirav Modi was allowed in August to appeal against his extradition to India on grounds that the return would harm his mental health and put him at risk of suicide.
As reported by ANI, High Court Judge Martin Chamberlain had ruled that Nirav Modi should be given “adequate hearing” to appeal against the earlier decision at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London.
The prior court’s ruling found Nirav Modi fit to return to India to face charges of fraud involving over USD 1 billion from Punjab National Bank as well as money laundering, witness intimidation and destruction of evidence Was.
Read also | Elon Musk named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year 2021
Lawyers for Nirav Modi have long argued that his client is suffering from severe depression and will not receive adequate medical care if he is imprisoned at Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai until he appears in court.
He claimed that his mental health condition had worsened at Wandsworth Prison in south London following his arrest in London in March 2019 and the strict restrictions imposed on prisons during the COVID-19 pandemic, ANI reported.
He also produced several medical experts to provide evidence that Modi was at high risk of suicide.
In his appeal to the High Court, Modi’s lawyer Edward Fitzgerald QC argued that Westminster Magistrates’ Court Judge Samuel Goozy’s decision would violate his client’s human rights as stipulated in the European Convention on Human Rights.
Once the jeweler of some of Hollywood’s and Bollywood’s biggest stars, Nirav Modi suffered a massive downfall after he was accused of giving over USD 2 billion to the state-owned Punjab National Bank through a carefully planned scam involving fake corporations and directors. was accused of fraud.
The Indian government has also accused him of intimidating witnesses and destroying evidence.
Fugitive Heera has been lodged in London’s Wandsworth Prison since his arrest in the British capital in March 2019. His extradition was ordered in February by Judge Samuel Gozzi sitting at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London.
(with agency input)
,