New Delhi, March 26: Fugitive diamond trader Nirav Modi faced a significant setback as the King’s Bench Division of the London High Court dismissed his application to reopen proceedings against his Extradition order to India. This ruling comes as a blow to Modi, who is wanted in connection with a major fraud case involving Punjab National Bank.
The Crown Prosecution Service represented the case, supported by a dedicated team from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which included investigators who traveled to London to assist in the hearing.
Modi’s application to reopen the case was based on a previous ruling concerning Sanjay Bhandari, a middleman who argued that he would face torture if extradited to India. The court had rejected Bhandari’s extradition on humanitarian grounds.
Citing this precedent, Modi claimed he too would face torture if returned to India. However, CBI officials refuted this claim during the proceedings.
The High Court concluded that Modi’s application did not meet the criteria for extraordinary circumstances necessary to reopen the case. The court stated that the grounds presented were insufficient, making it inappropriate to reconsider the earlier decision.
Nirav Modi is accused of obtaining foreign loans using fraudulent guarantees issued in the name of the state-run lender, Punjab National Bank. He fled India in January 2018, shortly before the CBI initiated its investigation into the scam.
Following his arrest in the United Kingdom in 2019, British courts approved his extradition to India, accepting assurances regarding his treatment in India and finding no legal barriers to his extradition, which led to the dismissal of his previous appeals.