INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
London: In a detailed win for the Indian authorities, a UK judge ruled on Thursday that fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi not only has a
case to answer in the Indian courts but that there is no evidence to suggest he would not get a reasonable trial in India.Nirav Modi,
desired in India on charges of scams and cash laundering in the approximated USD 2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, lost his
legal fight versus extradition on all premises as District Judge Samuel Goozee also concluded that there are no human rights issues that his
medical needs would not be attended to based on a number of Indian federal government assurances
The 49-year-old appeared via videolink from Wandsworth Prison in south-west London, dressed in an official match and sporting a thick beard,
and revealed no feeling as excerpts of the judgment were read out in court
I am pleased that there is proof upon which NDM [Nirav Deepak Modi] could be founded guilty in relation the conspiracy to defraud the PNB
A prima face case is developed, the judge said.He likewise concludes a prima facie case to have been developed on all counts of charges
brought by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED)-- cash laundering, intimidation of witnesses and
disappearance of evidence
I am not needed to leave out all Mr Modi's numerous alternative theoretical possibilities and stories; nor exclude his individual analysis
of the evidence, in order to discover a prima face case has been established, the judge noted, referring to the extradition case of
previous Kingfisher Airlines boss Vijay Mallya as precedent.He accepted that while Nirav's psychological health had actually deteriorated
due to the lengthy incarceration in a London jail, excerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, his risk of suicide does not meet the high limit to
please him that his mindset is such that it would be unjustified or overbearing to extradite him
Under the UK Extradition Act 2003, the judge will now send his findings to the Secretary of State for House Affairs, Priti Patel
It is the UK Cabinet minister who is authorised to order an extradition under the India-UK Extradition Treaty and has 2 months within which
to make that decision.The Home Secretary's order rarely goes against the court's conclusions, as she has to think about just some very
narrow bars to extradition which are unlikely to use in this case, consisting of the possible imposition of a death penalty.Whatever the
ministerial decision, the losing side-- Nirav Modi has up to 14 days within which to approach the High Court and look for leave to appeal
after the Home Secretary has made her decision known
Nirav's legal team did not instantly verify if he intends to appeal versus Thursday's ruling
Any appeal, if approved, will be heard at the Administrative Division of the High Court in London.Nirav Modi, meanwhile, remains on remand
at Wandsworth Jail up until the Home Secretary's decision to sign off on the extradition order.He was arrested on an extradition warrant on
March 19, 2019, and has actually appeared via video link from Wandsworth Prison for a series of court hearings in the extradition case.His
multiple efforts at seeking bail have been consistently rejected, both at the Magistrates' and High Court level, as he was deemed a flight
Nirav is the topic of two sets of criminal proceedings, with CBI case relating to a massive fraud upon PNB through the deceitful acquiring
of letters of undertaking (LoUs) or loan arrangements, and the ED case relating to the laundering of the proceeds of that fraud.He likewise
deals with two surcharges of causing the disappearance of evidence and intimidating witnesses or criminal intimidation to cause death ,
which were added on to the CBI case.
