UK High Court rejects Nirav Modi's application to prevent his extradition to India

UK High Court has rejected the application from fugitive economic offender Nirav Modi to prevent his extradition to India. Modi had filed an application against the Westminster Magistrate Court’s extradition order in the High Court in London.

The appeal was before a High Court judge for a decision “on the papers” submitted for the appeal to determine if there are any grounds for an appeal against the Home Secretary's decision or the Westminster Magistrates Court February ruling in favour of Nirav Modi's extradition to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering.

A High Court official confirmed that the permission to appeal was "rejected on paper" on Tuesday, which leaves the 50-year-old jeweller with a chance to make his case at a brief oral hearing in the High Court with a renewed “leave to appeal” application for a judge to determine if it can proceed to a full appeal hearing.


Nirav Modi is wanted in India for an alleged Rs 13,500 crore bank fraud in Punjab National Bank. He had fled the country in the first week of January 2018, weeks before the PNB scam came into limelight and shocked the Indian banking industry. The fugitive diamantaire along with his uncle Mehul Choksi had allegedly bribed officials of the state-run bank to get Letters of Undertaking (LoU) on the basis of which they availed loans from overseas banks that remained unpaid.

The UK court blow came shortly after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said that it had transferred a part of the attached or seized assets in cases related to economic offenders Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, to state-run banks and the Centre.

Of the Rs 18,170.02 crore worth of assets seized, the ED said it has transferred Rs 9,371.17 crore to the government and public sector banks (PSBs).

ED has claimed that its investigation has also “irrevocably proved that these three accused persons used dummy entities controlled by them for rotation and siphoning off the funds provided by the banks”.

Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya have also been declared Fugitive Economic Offenders by PMLA Court in Mumbai. Recently, the ED has transferred shares attached by it (worth of Rs 6,600 crore).

(With inputs from Agencies)