Nirav Modi, the fugitive diamond dealer sought in India on fraud and money laundering accusations, suffered another defeat in his legal struggle against extradition on Thursday when the High Court in London granted him permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court, news agency PTI .
Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay declared that "the Appellant's (Nirav Modi) plea for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court is declined" in a judgement order issued at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
Last month, the 51-year-old diamantaire lost an appeal on mental health grounds when the same two-judge High Court bench ruled that his risk of suicide is not such that extraditing him to India to face charges in the estimated USD 2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam case would be unjust or oppressive.
Meanwhile, Modi has been held at Wandsworth Prison in London since his arrest in March 2019 on an extradition warrant.
When the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud was revealed, Nirav Modi fled India. Nirav Modi is the main suspect in the Rs 13,000-crore PNB fraud.
The Indian government has been attempting to extradite Nirav Modi from the United Kingdom to face allegations of defrauding PNB for Rs 7,000 crore, money laundering, deleting evidence, and intimidating witnesses.
Nirav Modi is facing two sets of criminal charges in connection with the PNB fraud. The CBI is investigating a large-scale fraud against PNB involving the illegal acquisition of letters of undertaking (LoUs) or loan agreements, while the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is looking into the laundering of the profits of that scam.
(With Inputs From PTI)