A High Court judge in London on Monday granted fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi permission to appeal against a magistrates’ court order in favour of extradition to India on mental health and human rights grounds.
A judge delivered his verdict remotely under Covid-19 rules to conclude that the arguments presented by the 50-year-old diamond merchant’s legal team concerning his “severe depression” and “high risk of suicide” were arguable at a substantial hearing.
He also noted that the adequacy of the measures capable of preventing “successful suicide attempts” at Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai, where Nirav Modi is to be detained upon extradition, also fall within the arguable ambit.
The diamond merchant, wanted in India to face charges of fraud and money laundering in the estimated USD 2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case, meanwhile remains at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London.