Even as fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi lost all of his pleas against extradition to India, the accused in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam is unlikely to return to India, not so soon at least.
The diamantaire, who fled India in 2018 before details of his alleged involvement in large-scale fraud at PNB became public lost all of his appeals against extradition at the London court. On December 15, 2022, the UK Supreme Court denied Modi’s appeal against his extradition to India. “The appellant’s application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court is refused,” Lord Justice Stuart Smith had said in his statement.
In accordance with the UK extradition procedure, the UK home secretary then had 28 days from that date to remove Nirav. After 28 days, the fugitive is still not on a plane bound for India. However, he continues to be imprisoned in Britain and has not requested bail.
On Friday, a Crown Prosecution Service spokeswoman Karishma Vora spoke to Times of India and said that the UK’s extradition proceedings have concluded adding that “there is another legal matter barring his removal.”
Vora, a Barrister at 39 Essex chambers in London said, “I cannot think of any other reason, why he has not been removed yet. UK proceedings on Nirav Modi are at an end, still, his removal is statute-barred. I think there is another legal matter involved, which I don’t know about.”
She added that Nirav Modi may have applied for asylum and his application could be pending and moving through the appeals process, or it might already have reached its conclusion and a decision had been made. In case it has been determined against Nirav Modi, it won’t stop him from being extradited. However, if his “asylum claim is accepted, then cannot be extradited and will be granted rights to stay in the United Kingdom, Karishma Vora told TOI.
His asylum application could be pending and moving through the appeals process, or it might already have reached its conclusion and a decision had been made. If Nirav has been determined against, it won’t stop him from being extradited.
Vora opined that it is very unlikely that Nirav Modi will be granted asylum based on the publicly available information about him and the case. She added that if his asylum application was accepted he would’ve been released from prison prompting that if an asylum claim is barring his removal then it must be under process.