NIRAV MODI EXTRADITION TRIAL TO RESUME
London, Sept. 6: Fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi, who has been lodged at a prison in London since his arrest in March last year, is set to appear via videolink for the second leg of his extradition trial at a UK court on Monday.
The 49-year-old jeweller is fighting extradition charges related to the estimated $2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud and money laundering case brought by the Indian government, being represented at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London by the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
In line with the Coronavirus lockdown restrictions, District Judge Samuel Goozee has directed Modi’s appearance from a room in Wandsworth Prison in south-west London with social distancing norms in place for the part-remote setting for the five-day hearing scheduled to conclude on Friday.
Justice Goozee had presided over the first leg of the extradition in May, during which the CPS sought to establish a prima facie case of fraud and money laundering against Modi. The upcoming hearings are ear-marked to complete those arguments after the Indian government had submitted additional “corroboratory evidence”.
It will then go on to deal with the additional extradition request, made by the Indian authorities and certified by UK Home Secretary Priti Patel earlier this year, which add on the charges of “causing the disappearance of evidence” and intimidating witnesses or “criminal intimidation to cause death” against Modi. —