London, November 9
Fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi on Wednesday lost his appeal against extradition to India on mental health grounds as the High Court in London ruled that his risk of suicide is not such that it would be either unjust or oppressive to extradite him to face charges of fraud and money laundering.
Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay, who presided over the appeal hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice earlier this year, said in their verdict that District Judge Sam Goozee’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court order from last year in favour of extradition was “sound”.
The leave to appeal in the High Court had been granted on two grounds related to mental health – under Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and Section 91 of the Extradition Act 2003.
The 51-year-old fugitive diamond merchant has the option of further appeals in the UK and European courts and the process to bring him back to stand trial in India is unlikely to be a speedy one.
“Pulling these various strands together and weighing them in the balance so as to reach an overall evaluative judgment on the question raised by Section 91, we are far from satisfied that Mr Modi’s mental condition and the risk of suicide are such that it would be either unjust or oppressive to extradite him,” states the ruling, handed down remotely.
“It may be that the main benefit of the appeal has been to obtain the extensive further [Indian government] assurances that we have identified in the course of this judgment, which render the position clear to Mr Modi’s advantage and the District Judge’s decision supportable,” the judges ruled.
Their verdict also finds every reason to accept that the government of India (GOI) will treat its assurances with “appropriate seriousness”, enhanced by the fact that this is a high-profile case so that the care of Nirav Modi, who remains behind bars at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London since his arrest in March 2019, is likely to be subject to “heightened scrutiny” at all times.
“The GoI will surely appreciate that a failure to honour its assurances would be liable to have a significant adverse effect on the mutual trust that forms the basis of the extradition regime to which India and the United Kingdom are parties,” the judges said. The judgment notes three sets of criminal proceedings against the diamantaire in India – the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case of fraud on the Punjab National Bank (PNB) which caused losses equivalent to over GBP 700 million, the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) case relating to the alleged laundering of the proceeds of that fraud and a third set of criminal proceedings involving alleged interference with evidence and witnesses in the CBI proceedings.
Then UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel, had ordered Nirav’s extradition based on Judge Goozee’s ruling in April last year and the case has been undergoing an appeals process since then.
The High Court ruling this week accepts that Nirav’s risk of suicide in the event of extradition may be characterised as “high” or “substantial” but concludes that the risk of deterioration of the underlying depression and the risk of suicide cannot be considered in a vacuum.
