Chennai: Accused in the Rs 14,000 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, fugitive jeweller Nirav Modi’s extradition verdict will be out today.
The two-year-long legal battle is expected to see an end, with the 49-year-old expected to appear via videolink from Wandsworth Prison in south-west London at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where District Judge Samuel Goozee is set to hand down his judgment on whether the jeweller has a case to answer before the Indian courts.
The magistrates’ court ruling will then be sent back to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel for a sign off, with the possibility of appeals in the High Court on either side depending on the outcome.
It may be noted that Modi was arrested on an extradition warrant on 19 March 2019, and has appeared via videolink from Wandsworth Prison for a series of court hearings in the extradition case. His multiple attempts at seeking bail have been repeatedly turned down, both at the Magistrates’ and High Court level, as he was deemed a flight risk.
He is the subject of two sets of criminal proceedings, with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case relating to a large-scale fraud upon PNB through the fraudulent obtaining of letters of undertaking (LoUs) or loan agreements, and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case relating to the laundering of the proceeds of that fraud.
He also faces two additional charges of ‘causing the disappearance of evidence’ and intimidating witnesses or ‘criminal intimidation to cause death’, which were added on to the CBI case.
It is expected that after his extradition, Nirav would be lodged in barrack 12 of Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai, Maharashtra.