A High Court judge in London on Monday granted fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi permission to appeal against a magistrates’ court order in favour of extradition to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering before the Indian courts on mental health and human rights grounds.
UK high court Judge Martin Chamberlain ruled that an appeal looking at the consequences to Nirav Modi’s state of mind is “reasonably arguable”. In June, the UK high court turned down Nirav Modi’s appeal against his extradition to India.
Modi’s lawyers had long argued that their client suffered from severe depression and would not receive adequate medical care if he is imprisoned at the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai pending his court appearance.
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They stated that his mental health condition had deteriorated further during his incarceration at Wandsworth Prison in South London following his arrest in London in March 2019 and the strict restrictions placed on prisons during the Covid-19 pandemic.
They had also introduced several medical experts to give evidence that Modi was at high risk of suicide.
Modi has been accused of defrauding the state-owned PNB of more than $2 billion and has also been charged by the Indian government with witness intimidation and destruction of evidence.
The 50-year-old businessman has been at the Wandsworth Prison in southwest London since March 2019, when he was arrested on the basis of India’s extradition request.
