LONDON: The Indian High Commission in London has sent the request documents over the extradition for fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, most wanted in India as a prime accused in the USD 2 billion loan fraud scam at Punjab National Bank, to the UK Central Authority, as per the official sources in London.
The unit associated with the UK government’s Home Office will now process forward the request, which comes under mutual legal assistance requests, to assist in criminal investigations or proceedings, before any extradition warrant can be issued against Modi of India.
The location and staying of the rich jeweller remain still not known, but the Indian government had already been informed by the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in June that it can easily initiate extradition proceedings despite all the uncertainty involved.
In a written reply to a question posed in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh had said that earlier this week, an extradition request for Modi “has been sent by a Special Diplomatic Bag to the High Commission of India (HCI), London, for onward transmission to the UK authorities”.
Official sources in London has already confirmed that the related documents had soon after been submitted to UKCA this week, which started the extradition process in motion. India falls under the Category 2 type of countries as per the UK’s Extradition Act 2003, which needs a decision to be taken by UK courts as well as the country’s home secretary.
As per the information available in the UK, Modi arrived in London earlier this year on an Indian passport. The UK government was also informed about the revocation of that particular passport belonging to Modi via a formal Note Verbale from the Indian authorities on February 19, following which the UK Home Office indicated that the businessman had already entered the UK using that travel document but there was no record of him exiting the country.
In later investigations, it was known that the 47-year-old was able to travel in and out of Britain at least four times since his passport was cancelled by the Indian authorities in February, having visited the UK, France and Belgium among some other countries in the past few months.
During his stay in London he was said to be living in the heart of the city above his jewellery boutique called “Nirav Modi” on Old Bond Street, which has since been closed down. His last reported exit from the UK was on a flight to Paris at the end of March.
Modi and his uncle, Mehul Choksi, who is living somewhere near US, are the main accuUK’s Crown Prosecution Service sed in the PNB scam and they both left India before the details of the fraud came to light on January 16. While it has now come to be known that Choksi has taken citizenship of the Caribbean island of Antigua, his nephew’s location still remains unclear.
If the absconding jeweller is traced and located in Britain, the extradition request to the UK government could follow a similar type of course as the case of embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya, who is fighting extradition to India on fraud and money laundering allegations amounting to an estimated Rs. 9,000 crores.
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