UK Court Rejects Nirav Modi’s Bail Plea For Fifth Time
Nirav Modi has been lodged at a prison in London since March remaining yr.
London:
A UK court docket on Thursday rejected for the 5th time the bail plea of fugitive diamond service provider Nirav Modi, who’s combating his extradition to India on fees over the just about USD 2 billion Punjab Nationwide Financial institution (PNB) fraud and cash laundering case.
Justice Ian Dove, who presided over the bail listening to on the Royal Courts of Justice, additionally concluded that the 49-year-old jeweller persisted to pose a possibility of absconding.
This was once the 5th strive at bail by way of Nirav Modi, who has been lodged at Wandsworth Jail in south-west London since his arrest in March remaining yr and is scheduled for an extradition trial between Might 11 and 15.
He seemed by means of videolink from jail as his criminal crew introduced a package deal of “stringent” bail measures, together with bail safety of four million kilos, space arrest with a 24-hour digital tag in addition to a personal safety guard provider and a strictly monitored get right of entry to to units and phones.
“There are dangers concerned with this applicant and the query for the court docket is are the ones dangers adequately guarded in opposition to,” famous Justice Dove.
“My central fear of a possibility of absconding isn’t obviated by way of the measures offered,” he dominated, including that he was once unhappy with the preparations offered to the court docket adequately contained the hazards posed within the very “really extensive motive” of fraud and cash laundering.
The Crown Prosecution Provider (CPS) barrister Nick Hearn, arguing on behalf of the Indian executive, had reiterated that Nirav Modi continues to stay a flight possibility and that any further measures introduced for his bail would now not make a breach “unattainable”.
Nirav Modi’s barrister, Edward Fitzgerald, argued that an be offering to pay for a safety guard from a credible disaster control corporate introduced “space arrest with efficient room arrest” at his luxurious rental at Centre Level in London.
He additionally sought to disregard the CPS fear of Nirav Modi proceeding to intervene with witnesses because of strictly monitored get right of entry to to telephones and units.
Whilst main points of Nirav Modi’s psychological well being weren’t mentioned in open court docket, the court docket was once informed he suffers from melancholy and that his mental situation was once “deteriorating with the ever-increasing detention” since his arrest in March remaining yr.
“There has moreover been an excessively worrying choice of bodily assaults within jail and he was once informed he was once being arrange for extortion,” Fitzgerald added.
The pass judgement on stated he had taken the ones components into consideration however concurred with each Justice Ingrid Simler, who denied bail on the Top Court remaining yr, in addition to Leader Justice of the Peace Emma Arbuthnot, who had remaining refused Nirav Modi’s bail in November 2019.
Nirav Modi seen Thursday’s lawsuits by means of videolink from jail and from time to time referred to a few information ahead of him.
Closing week, he seemed by means of videolink from his jail ahead of Pass judgement on David Robinson on the Westminster Magistrates” Court for his regimen 28-day call-over remand listening to and can subsequent seem ahead of the magistrates” court docket on March 24.
Nirav Modi was once arrested on March 19, 2019, on an extradition warrant finished by way of Scotland Backyard on fees introduced by way of the Indian executive. Throughout next hearings, Westminster Magistrates” Court was once informed that Nirav Modi was once the “most important beneficiary” of the fraudulent issuance of letters of endeavor (LoUs) as a part of a conspiracy to defraud PNB after which laundering the proceeds of crime.
