London: Fugitive businessman Nirav Modi has been denied bail by a UK court for a third time, in a brief hearing that was presided over by Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot. He has been further remanded till May 24. A full hearing has been scheduled for May 30.
The 48-year-old diamond merchant was earlier refused bail on March 29 on grounds there was “substantial risk he would fail to surrender”.
The diamond dealer’s “lack of community ties” in the UK and an attempt to acquire the citizenship of Vanuatu – a remote island country located in the South Pacific Ocean – in late 2017 went against him as the judge said it seemed like he was trying to “move away from India at an important time”.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs website, India has no extradition treaty in force with the Pacific island nation. However, “in the absence of a treaty, it is a matter for the foreign country to consider, in accordance with its domestic laws and procedures, whether the country can agree to India’s extradition request on the basis of an assurance of reciprocity.”
Nirav Modi is fighting extradition from the UK to India in the matter of the Rs 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud and money laundering case. He is being held at Wandsworth prison in London, where he has been since his arrest in March.
He is understood to be in the UK on an Investor Visa from 2015; it was granted at a time the so-called “golden visa” route was relatively easier for super-rich individuals to acquire residency rights in the UK based on a minimum of 2-million pound investment.
Modi was arrested by uniformed Scotland Yard officers from a Metro Bank branch in central London as he attempted to open a new bank account on March 19. During his first court appearance a day later, it emerged that the diamantaire accused of defrauding PNB via fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) had been in possession of multiple passports since revoked by the Indian authorities.
