Fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi’s application hearing seeking permission to reopen his extradition appeal concluded in the High Court in London, with claims that he faces a “real risk of torture” during interrogations by the investigating agencies in India.

Lord Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay, presiding over the appeal at the Royal Courts of Justice, reserved their judgment at the end of a day-long hearing on Tuesday.

“This case is of extreme importance, to Mr Modi and to the Indian officials who have travelled from India. We will deliver the judgment as soon as possible,” said Stuart-Smith, as the hearing listed over two days was wrapped up early.

The 54-year-old businessman, wanted in India to stand trial on charges of fraud and money laundering in the estimated USD 2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam case, appeared via videolink from Pentonville prison in north London.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), representing the Indian government in court, argued against the grounds for reopening a matter in which Nirav’s extradition had been ordered nearly six years ago.

Extradition poses a real risk of inhuman or degrading treatment or torture arising from interrogation in India, argued Nirav’s barrister Edward Fitzgerald KC.
He also sought to underplay the assurances given by the government of India as “neither adequate nor reliable” to meet the risk posed by the prospect of additional non-bailable warrants being executed against the diamantaire.

He alleged that his client could even be moved from Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai to Gujarat to be interrogated by agencies other than the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED).

CPS barrister Helen Malcolm KC highlighted the India ..

Satish Nagar