Nirav Modi to stay in British jail till March 29 as London court denies bail

Mar 20 (AZINS) London's Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday rejected fugitive Indian businessman Nirav Modi's bail plea, forcing him to stay in British jail till next date of hearing on March 29.

From the day of his arrest, Nirav Modi will be in jail for 11 days before the court again takes up his case on Friday.

Nirav Modi, the man responsible for allegedly defrauding Punjab National Bank (PNB) of Rs 13,000 crore, was presented in the court on Wednesday at 11.30 am London time (5 pm IST) on Wednesday.

He was arrested on Tuesday in London's Holborn area and spent the night in a cell. It was a bank clerk who actually recognised him and called the police after which he was arrested.

"Nirav Deepak Modi, 48, was arrested on behalf of the Indian Authorities on Tuesday in Holborn," the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

He was produced before the Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, where he contested his extradition to India.

While Jonathan Swain from CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) is representing India, Nirav Modi's counsel is George Hepburne Scott.

Nirav Modi's counsel argued before the court that the case has a political motivation and conditions of Indian jails are not good. This was rejected by the District Judge Marie Mallon who denied bail to Modi and remanded him in custody till March 29, saying there were substantial grounds to believe that he would fail to surrender if granted bail.

The conditions of Indian jails was also raised during Vijay Mallya's case but despite this, his extradition to India was given a nod by the UK court.

India had approached Interpol regarding Nirav Modi and July 2018 a red corner notice was issued against him.

The development comes days after the billionaire diamantaire was spotted by British newspaper the Telegraph walking in London street wearing an ostrich hide jacket worth Rs 9 lakh.

He fled the country in January of 2018 when PNB first reported the scam. In February, India revoked his passport and later in August of last year, India sent 2 extradition requests to UK- one each from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) - regarding the extradition of the absconding businessman.

Top Indian govt sources told WION that New Delhi has already sent relevant material to British govt for extradition and it up to the Westminister court to decide whether our extradition demand is genuine. The source added, at a later stage on whether a CBI representative will go to London in Nirav Modi case.

The UK Central Authority of Home Office in early March this year sent India's extradition request to Westminster Magistrate Court for the District Judge for further proceedings.

Through fraudulent issuance of Letters of Undertaking / Foreign Letters of Credit for payments of import bills Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi from Feb 2011 to May 2017 were able to dupe PNB of Rs 13,000 cr.

While Nirav Modi fled to the UK, Choksi fled to the Caribbean country of Antigua and Barbuda and took its citizenship.

A timeline of Nirav Modi's case