London: The UK High Court will hear extradition appeal of billionaire fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi on Tuesday. Modi, who is lodged at Wandsworth Prison in London since his arrest in the British capital in March 2019, was granted permission to appeal against his extradition from the UK to India to face fraud charges in August this year.
Modi was given permission to appeal against the extradition was ordered by Westminster Magistrate’s Court in London in February, on the grounds that returning to India would harm his ‘mental health’ and place him at ‘risk of suicide’.
The High Court judge Martin Chamberlain had ruled that Modi should be given a “substantial hearing” to appeal against an earlier ruling at Westminster Magistrate’s Court in London, which had ruled that Modi was fit to be returned to India to face the charges of defrauding the Punjab National Bank of more than USD 1 billion as well as further charges of money laundering, witness intimidation and destruction of evidence.
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.
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.
Modi, once the jeweller to some of the biggest stars of Hollywood and Bollywood, stands accused of defrauding the state-owned Punjab National Bank of more than USD 2 billion through a carefully orchestrated scam involving dummy corporations and directors. He is also charged by the Indian government with witness intimidation and destruction of evidence.
(With inputs from ANI)
from World – India News, Breaking News | India.com https://ift.tt/3dMENpx
