New Delhi: Nirav ModiHis lawyers argued during a hearing in a London court on Wednesday that extradition to India would worsen his suicidal tendencies and adversely affect his mental health.
He also referred to the deteriorating condition of Arthur Jail in Mumbai where Nirav was to be kept after his extradition to India.
The lawyer said, “Arthur Road Jail cannot offer him his care. It is affected by Covid and Nirav will not get a fair trial.”
He sought to establish grounds for a full High Court appeal hearing claiming that extraditing him would be repressive because of his mental state which could lead to suicidal impulses.
“The District Judge was wrong to hold that there was nothing unusual about the mental state of the appellant (Nirav Modi); Noiseless’s barrister Edward Fitzgerald argued that it was wrong to focus on his current fitness to solicit.
“As the District Judge’s conclusion that ‘the applicant’s return would improve his condition’ and ‘the present conditions of his custody would improve’, this finding was contrary to the evidence before him and was untenable in the light of the new evidence. It was based on his assessment that the jail conditions at Arthur Road, Mumbai would be better than that of HMP Wandsworth,” he said.
The lawyers also presented new evidence to claim the COVID-19 pandemic is “overwhelming by the impact that the new outbreak of COVID presents the health system on the verge of collapse”.
Nirav is currently appealing in the High Court in London against being extradited to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering in the estimated $2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case.
The 50-year-old jeweler, who is behind bars at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London, had previously lost the first stage of the High Court’s appeals process after a judge refused permission to appeal “on paper”.
He was declared a fugitive economic offender by the PMLA court in India in December 2019.
Nirav is the subject of two sets of criminal proceedings, in which the CBI case pertains to obtaining Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) or loan agreements relating to large-scale fraud on PNB, and the ED case pertains to laundering of proceeds. of that fraud.
He also faces two additional charges of “disappearance of evidence” and intimidation of witnesses or “criminal intimidation to cause death”, which were added in the CBI case.
(with inputs from agencies)
He also referred to the deteriorating condition of Arthur Jail in Mumbai where Nirav was to be kept after his extradition to India.
The lawyer said, “Arthur Road Jail cannot offer him his care. It is affected by Covid and Nirav will not get a fair trial.”
He sought to establish grounds for a full High Court appeal hearing claiming that extraditing him would be repressive because of his mental state which could lead to suicidal impulses.
“The District Judge was wrong to hold that there was nothing unusual about the mental state of the appellant (Nirav Modi); Noiseless’s barrister Edward Fitzgerald argued that it was wrong to focus on his current fitness to solicit.
“As the District Judge’s conclusion that ‘the applicant’s return would improve his condition’ and ‘the present conditions of his custody would improve’, this finding was contrary to the evidence before him and was untenable in the light of the new evidence. It was based on his assessment that the jail conditions at Arthur Road, Mumbai would be better than that of HMP Wandsworth,” he said.
The lawyers also presented new evidence to claim the COVID-19 pandemic is “overwhelming by the impact that the new outbreak of COVID presents the health system on the verge of collapse”.
Nirav is currently appealing in the High Court in London against being extradited to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering in the estimated $2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case.
The 50-year-old jeweler, who is behind bars at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London, had previously lost the first stage of the High Court’s appeals process after a judge refused permission to appeal “on paper”.
He was declared a fugitive economic offender by the PMLA court in India in December 2019.
Nirav is the subject of two sets of criminal proceedings, in which the CBI case pertains to obtaining Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) or loan agreements relating to large-scale fraud on PNB, and the ED case pertains to laundering of proceeds. of that fraud.
He also faces two additional charges of “disappearance of evidence” and intimidation of witnesses or “criminal intimidation to cause death”, which were added in the CBI case.
(with inputs from agencies)
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