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Nirav Modi to seek bail again in UK court
In November 2019, Nirav Modi offered to furnish a security deposit of £4 million and obey stringent restrictions, but chief magistrate of the Westminster Magistrates Court denied his bail. Ever since his arrest in March 2019, Modi has been denied bail five times.
Diamantaire Nirav Modi, who is lodged in the Wandsworth jail and is facing extradition to India for major financial offences, will seek bail again on Thursday in the high court of England and Wales after being denied it on five occasions since his arrest in March 2019.
He was last denied bail in November, when he offered to furnish a higher security deposit of £4 million and obey stringent restrictions, but chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot of the Westminster Magistrates Court said the grounds for earlier refusing bail had not changed.
A spokesperson of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Wednesday: “The bail application is regarding a change of circumstances. Mr Modi has increased the security and offered more stringent bail conditions than the last time”.
Modi’s lawyer had alleged at the November hearing that he had been assaulted in the jail, faced threats from inmates, and denied access to a laptop to prepare for the extradition trial in May.
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However, the CPS lawyer appearing for India insisted that there had been no change in material circumstances; besides, he said the raising of the security deposit from £50,000 to £1 million, to £2 million and then to £4 million showed Modi’s access to large funds.
Modi’s defence team had described the ‘bail package’ offered as unprecedented: £4 million security deposit, wearing an electronic tag, constant surveillance of phones and movement, and restricted use of the internet.
