Two high court judges in the administrative court in London dismissed the appeal made by fugitive Indian diamantaire Nirav Modi against his extradition to India to face charges of fraud, money laundering, tampering with evidence, and influencing witnesses.
The dismissal of Modi’s appeal against the decision of the lower court and the UK home secretary to extradite him marks an extraordinary fall from grace for a man once dubbed the Diamond King in India. Nirav Modi was once worth $1. 8 billion and frequently spotted mingling with India's elite and celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood while holding a bottle of champagne. Modi currently has few options. To avoid extradition, he must now apply to get a point of law of public importance certified by the high court and then apply for leave to appeal in the Supreme Court in London within 14 days.
If the high court does not grant certification, then his only hope is a Rule 39 injunction from the European Court of Human Rights. “To get that he has to prove a real and imminent risk to his health,” said Ben Keith, extradition barrister at 5 St Andrews Hill.
Since March 20 2019, he has been languishing in Wandsworth prison in London fighting extradition to India to face charges of defrauding Punjab National Bank of over £700 million, of laundering the proceeds of that fraud, and of redeploying employees from his company, Firestar Diamond, as dummy directors to front shadow companies in Dubai and Hong Kong.
Since Nirav was profoundly depressed and in danger of committing suicide, he had argued that extraditing him would be oppressive or unfair. This was the same defence Shrien Dewani and Julian Assange had used to avoid extradition to South Africa and the US, respectively. The verdicts in both cases were overturned on appeal.
