Wanted diamond merchant Nirav Modi appeared via videolink from his London prison for a regular call-over hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday, when he was further remanded in custody until Feb. 25 when the judgment in his extradition case is to be handed down.
Modi stands scrutiny in India on fraud and money laundering charges and is a prime accused in the Rs 14,000-cr Punjab National Bank (PNB) bank scam. Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi fled in early 2018 India before the news of the scam broke out.
The timeline for the hearing of the extradition case was earlier confirmed by District Judge Samuel Goozee last month. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian authorities, accused the jeweller and designer of Nirav Modi had accused him of running a Ponzi-like scheme leading to the PNB scam.
A Ponzi scheme typically refers to an investment scam which generates funds for earlier investors with money taken from later investors and the CPS sought to establish that Nirav used his firms – Diamonds R Us, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds – to make fraudulent use of PNB’s LoUs in a conspiracy with banking officials.
The charges against him in UK include fraud, money laundering and perverting the course of justice. Modi continues to be lodged at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London.
Modi’s defence team, led by barrister Clare Montgomery, in her counter-arguments sought to establish that the entire process comprised of “authorised though ill-advised lending” that took place in “broad daylight” and none of her client’s actions met the legal threshold of perverting the course of justice or amounted to fraud.
The judge also heard detailed arguments from both sides about why Modi’s “deteriorating” mental health condition does or does not meet the Section 91 threshold of the Extradition Act 2003 – which was most recently been used in the UK to block the extradition of Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange on the grounds of it being “unjust and oppressive” as he is a high suicide risk.
