Nirav Modi making farcical claims for bail: Officials
To ensure that he does not get relief, ED and CBI have been sending their officers to London to assist the UK Crown Prosecution Service each time he approaches the courts for bail, officials said
Fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, whose bail plea was rejected for the 10th time in the UK on Thursday, has been making “farcical” claims to seek bail such as renting an apartment in London or getting a job to show he won’t flee Britain, but all these have been successfully contested by Indian agencies, officials familiar with the development said.
To ensure that he does not get relief, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have been sending their officers to London to assist the UK Crown Prosecution Service each time he approaches the courts for bail, officials added.
“Nirav Modi has been making ludicrous claims in his bail applications that he will rent an apartment in London, or has got a job, has his family in the UK and that he is ready to stay in the house arrest to say there is no way he will flee the country,” an official said, declining to be named.
“He has also made claims that he would be killed if sent to India or cited human rights violation, but all his assertions have been rejected with judges agreeing that he is a flight risk,” the official added.
ED said in a statement on Friday that “the bail hearing (on Thursday) was comprehensively heard, wherein the government of India (through CPS counsel team and officials of ED and other agencies) strongly opposed the granting of bail to Nirav Modi, leading to favourable outcome for government of India.”
“After thorough deliberation of arguments of Modi with counter arguments of prosecution (India), written submissions made by ED (highlighting the money laundering aspects by using shell companies to launder the proceeds to even outside jurisdictions including the UK) and keeping in view the sheer quantum of fraud (part of which has already been attached/seized by ED and restituted to the victim banks), the UK high court rejecting the application, denied bail to Nirav Modi,” it added.
ED further said that the fugitive businessman had earlier made several attempts to obtain bail from the UK Westminster magistrate court on six occasions and three times from the UK high court. “However, bail to Nirav Modi was denied on each such occasion from the respective UK courts,” ED said.
Earlier, on Thursday evening, CBI said that “the bail arguments were strongly opposed by the CPS advocate who was ably assisted by a strong CBI team consisting of investigating and law officers who travelled to London for this purpose”. “CBI could successfully defend the arguments which resulted in rejection of the bail,” it added.
Modi, who is accused of cheating Punjab National Bank (PNB) of ₹6,498 crore [the total fraud is worth ₹13,578 crore out of which around ₹7,000 crore is linked to his uncle Mehul Choksi], is lodged at Wandsworth prison on the outskirts of London since March 19, 2019, after he was arrested based on India’s extradition request to the British authorities.
On February 25, 2021, a district judge at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court ordered his extradition to India which was upheld by the UK high court on November 9, 2022. The high court also refused his plea to go to the Supreme Court against its decision, thereby exhausting his legal options.
ED on Friday said that “the extradition proceedings against Modi at final stage in London”. Officials said that final stages pertain to the asylum application of Modi, which is pending before the UK government.
“The British government has, till date, not informed us about these proceedings and a deadline for deciding the same. He should have been extradited by now,” a second official said, also declining to be named.
According to ED, Modi’s movable and immovable assets worth ₹690 crore have been confiscated under provisions of The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 while out of total assets attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), ₹1,052.42 crore has been successfully restored to the victim banks, PNB consortium banks.
