Nirav Modi to return to India soon? London court rejects fugitive’s plea to fight against extradition

The road to India has become clearer for fugitive businessman Nirav Modi, who recently filed a plea in the London High Court, fighting the order passed for his extradition to his home country. Now, the next step for Modi is to soon be extradited to India and be tried for his fraud.

In a major setback for Nirav Modi, who is a fugitive diamond businessman, the London High Court ended up rejecting his bid to take his fight against extradition to India on charges of fraud and money laundering to the UK’s Supreme Court.

"The appellant’s application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court is refused," Lord Justice Stuart Smith said in his statement. This comes just a few months after the UK authorities approved his extradition to India, where he will be tried for his crimes.

The diamantaire, who fled India in 2018 before details of his alleged involvement in large-scale fraud at the Punjab National Bank became public, has argued there is a high risk of suicide if he is extradited, as per media reports.

In November, Nirav Modi filed an application before the UK High Court for permission to appeal against his extradition to India in the UK Supreme Court. He lost the appeal on Thursday to take his fight against extradition to the UK Supreme Court.

Nirav Modi reportedly filed an application in the High Court in London, seeking permission to appeal against his extradition order, two weeks after a UK court dismissed his plea against extradition back to India.

Nirav Modi became the prime accused in the PNB scam, where the fraud of Rs 13,000 crore was carried out allegedly by him. The London High Court bench ended up throwing out his plea, saying that there were no signs of “psychotic illness” in the businessman.

The court rejected Nirav Modi’s counsel’s claims that he will die by suicide due to severe depression and said, "Nirav Modi neither is nor is very likely to be at the most severe end of the scale of depressive illness".

(With ANI inputs)

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