Thursday (September 19): Wanted in connection with the nearly USD 2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud and money laundering case, Nirav Modi will appear before a UK court via videolink from his London prison today for a routine call-over remand hearing. He is fighting extradition to India at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
Mr. Modi is expected to be given a confirmed date for his trial, expected in May next year. There is also likely to be a case management hearing in the matter ahead of the extradition trial in February next year.
Judge Tan Ikram had given directions at the last call-over hearing on August 22, for the court clerk to seek a confirmation of the proposed five-day extradition trial to start on May 11, 2020.
Under the UK law, Modi is expected to be produced before the court within a 28-day period during his judicial custody pending trial.
Since his arrest, his legal team, led by solicitor Anand Doobay and barrister Clare Montgomery, have made four bail applications, which have been rejected each time due to Modi being deemed a flight risk.
Mr. Modi has been lodged at Wandsworth prison in south-west London, one of England’s most overcrowded jails, since his arrest in March on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard on charges brought by the Indian government, being represented by the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in court.
The fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi was arrested by uniformed Scotland Yard officers on an extradition warrant on March 19 and has been in prison since. During subsequent hearings, Westminster Magistrates’ Court was told that Modi was the “principal beneficiary” of the fraudulent issuance of letters of undertaking (LoUs) as part of a conspiracy to defraud PNB and then laundering the proceeds of crime.
