"Suicidal" Modi Loses Last-Ditch Extradition Appeal
November 09, 22
(IDEX Online) - Fugitive diamond tycoon Nirav Modi today lost his last-ditch battle against extradition to India, where he faces charges of fraud and money laundering.
The 51-year-old, who has been in a British prison since March 2019, had argued he was a suicide risk if he was sent back.
He is accused of fraudulently using letters of undertaking offered by the Punjab National Bank (PNB) in an alleged $1.85bn fraud.
Modi (pictured), who denies any wrongdoing, fought against his extradition in a series of legal challenges, culminating in a final hearing at London's High Court last month.
Last February a district judge at Westminster magistrates' court ruled there was no bar to extraditing Modi, despite an uncontested diagnosis of severe depression.
In April 2021 the British Home Secretary ordered that he should be sent back to India to stand trial.
But In August 2021, a High Court judge granted Modi the right to appeal his extradition.
Judge Jeremy Stuart-Smith, delivering his verdict on that appeal today, accepted Modi may be a high suicide risk, but said the prison where he will be held in Mumbai would be able to "cope properly" with his condition.