Nirav Modi’s Extradition Trial Verdict Anticipated On February 25

London:

The judgment day for whether or not sought after diamond service provider Nirav Modi can also be extradited to India to stand fees of fraud and cash laundering when it comes to the Punjab Nationwide Financial institution rip-off case has been set as February 25.

District Pass judgement on Samuel Goozee showed the timeline on Friday, on the finish of remaining submissions within the case at Westminster Magistrates’ Courtroom in London.

The sought after diamond service provider stays remanded in custody and can seem for a regimen 28-day remand listening to by the use of videolink in the intervening time on February 5.

Previous on Friday, the pass judgement on heard that Nirav Modi is answerable for overseeing a “ponzi-like scheme” that led to huge fraud to PNB. The Crown Prosecution Carrier (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian government, focussed on laying out the prima facie case of fraud, cash laundering and perverting the process justice in opposition to the 49-year-old jeweller, who adopted the lawsuits on the second one day of a two-day listening to by the use of videolink from a room at Wandsworth Jail in south-west London.

The courtroom used to be taken via proof already offered earlier than Westminster Magistrates’ Courtroom in London all over the process a number of hearings remaining yr to be able to wrap up the extradition listening to this week.

“The easy and stark reality is that he (Nirav Modi) used his 3 partnership corporations to obtain billions of greenbacks price of credit score which used to be completely unsecured and LoUs [letters of undertaking] have been issued for wholly bogus industry,” mentioned CPS barrister Helen Malcolm, showing by the use of videolink for the part-remote courtroom lawsuits because of the coronavirus lockdown.

“Whilst the defence claims it is a mere industrial dispute, there’s a plethora of proof to indicate to a ponzi-like scheme the place new LoUs have been used to pay off previous ones,” she mentioned.

A ponzi scheme in most cases refers to an funding rip-off which generates price range for previous traders with cash taken from later traders and the CPS sought to ascertain that Nirav Modi used his corporations – Diamonds R Us, Sun Exports and Stellar Diamonds – to make fraudulent use of PNB”s LoUs in a conspiracy with banking officers.

Helen Malcolm’s arguments additionally reiterated earlier proof of a video by means of a former worker claiming to have gained dying threats from Nirav Modi and dummy administrators of shell corporations being compelled to depart India to evade the investigations introduced by means of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED).

“Those administrators have been confused to get them additional out of the way in which from the Indian investigation,” famous Helen Malcolm.

Drawing Justice Goozee’s consideration to “authentic and bona fide fees” filed in opposition to Nirav Modi in India, she wired that the pass judgement on want most effective to meet himself on whether or not there’s a prima facie case in opposition to Nirav Modi to be extradited to face trial at the fees.

Nirav Modi’s defence workforce, led by means of barrister Clare Sir Bernard Law, in her counter-arguments has challenged that premise as a result of it could way the case with an “extraordinarily huge brush”.

“It calls for right kind research as to why the offences can’t quantity to an allegation of financial institution fraud, as there is not any case of operative deception,” mentioned Sir Bernard Law, relating to knowledgeable proof on Indian legislation given by means of former Indian Prime Courtroom Pass judgement on Abhay Thipsay remaining yr.

She additionally sought to ascertain that all the procedure made from “permitted although ill-advised lending” that happened in “huge sunlight” and none of her consumer’s movements met the criminal threshold of perverting the process justice.

On Thursday, the pass judgement on heard detailed arguments from either side about why Nirav Modi’s “deteriorating” psychological well being situation does or does now not meet the Phase 91 threshold of the Extradition Act 2003 – which has maximum just lately been utilized in the United Kingdom to dam the extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at the grounds of it being “unjust and oppressive” as he’s a top suicide chance.

“As within the Assange case, the problems right here evidentially are the similar – the psychological situation of Nirav Modi and the remedy he would obtain given the jail stipulations in India,” mentioned Sir Bernard Law, pointing to her consumer’s serious melancholy and chance of suicide because of his long incarceration since March 2019 and known as for his discharge.

The CPS challenged the defence stance to mention that the 2 instances have been of a “utterly other nature” and as a substitute sought an adjournment within the match that Phase 91 used to be to be engaged, to permit an impartial analysis of clinical information by means of a expert psychiatrist and suitable assurances be bought on the subject of his care in India.

Nirav Modi is the topic of 2 units of prison lawsuits, with the CBI case with regards to a large-scale fraud upon PNB in the course of the fraudulent acquiring of LoUs or mortgage agreements, and the ED case with regards to the laundering of the proceeds of that fraud. He additionally faces two further fees of “inflicting the disappearance of proof” and intimidating witnesses or “prison intimidation to motive dying” added to the CBI case.

The jeweller has been in jail since he used to be arrested on March 19, 2019, on an extradition warrant done by means of Scotland Backyard and his makes an attempt at searching for bail were time and again became down.