Nirav Modi loses the bid to take the fight for extradition before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom | Popgen Tech

Nirav Modi fled India in 2018 before details of his alleged involvement in a large-scale PNB fraud became public.

Pronouncing the sentencing order in the London court, Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay rejected Nirav Modi’s application for an appeal against extradition to India.

“Of the Appellant [Nirav Modi] an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court is rejected,” the bench said. The High Court rejected Nirav Modi’s application to certify a “point of law of general public importance”. The court also imposed costs of more than £150,000 ( ₹1.53 crore).

A month ago, Nirav Modi lost the appeal on mental health grounds. During last month’s hearing, the two judges had ruled that his risk of suicide is not such that it would be unfair or oppressive to extradite him to India in the PNB loan scam case .

Regarding the “suicide risk”, Judge Jeremy Stuart-Smith had ruled that Nirav Modi could be kept safe in the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai where he would be detained after being extradited to India. The judge said while the risk may be high, but “the arrangements in the Mumbai prison will allow the authorities to cope well with the condition of Mr. Nirav Modi”.

The decision by the London court will strengthen India’s efforts to extradite Nirav Modi to India to face charges in the multi-crore loan scam case. Nirav Modi is accused of defrauding India’s second largest bank, Punjab National Bank, of about $2 billion using credit guarantees for his diamond business.

Nirav Modi was arrested in 2019 and lodged in Wandsworth Prison in London.