Nirav Modi moves Europe Human Rights Court after London court snub in extradition case

Indian agencies, however, believe that his application is likely to be rejected at the admission stage only.

Two weeks after the high court of justice in London refused to reopen Nirav Modi’s extradition case, a verdict which has shut all doors for him legally in the United Kingdom, the fugitive diamantaire has approached the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France, in a last ditch attempt to save himself, people familiar with the development said.

File photo of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi. (HT_PRINT)

Indian agencies, however, believe that his application is likely to be rejected at the admission stage only as his previous attempts to invoke the convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, better known as the European Convention on Human Rights, before the UK courts have been dismissed by the judges.

“If anything, this fresh attempt by Nirav Modi will just delay by a few months his repatriation to India because he has already exhausted all his legal options in the UK,” said an official, requesting anonymity.

The UK high court, on March 25, took into account the assurances from the Indian government — delivered in September 2025, December 2025, and through a note verbale from the Indian High Commission in London in February 2026 — that Modi will not be interrogated by any of the five investigating agencies handling his cases, as it dismissed his plea to reopen the extradition, which was ordered by a Westminster’s court in London in February 2021.

Elaborating the process at ECHR, a second officer said that “if Modi’s plea is found admissible by the body, then the government seeking extradition (India) will be called to submit its observations on both, the admissibility and the merits of the case. However, if rejected at the admissibility stage, he won’t be able to appeal at ECHR again”.

The UK is a party to the European Convention on Human Rights. Modi had previously raised the issue of torture in Indian prisons, if extradited, and his mental health to oppose the extradition but the courts in London have not found merit in his arguments.

HT reached out to Nirav Modi’s legal team in London through email but there was no response. Accused of defrauding Punjab National Bank of ₹6,498 crore — part of a total ₹13,578 crore fraud, with around ₹7,000 crore linked to his uncle Mehul Choksi — Modi has been in a UK prison since his arrest by Scotland Yard in March 2019, based on India’s extradition request.