UK High Court reserves judgment in Nirav Modi's extradition appeal

A British court on Wednesday reserved its judgment in the Nirav Modi extradition appeal at the end of a twoday hearing and said the verdict in the case will be handed down as soon as possible given that the wanted diamond merchant has been in a state of limbo as he remains incarcerated in a prisonOn the second day of the final stage of the High Court appeal hearing being pursued by 51yearold Modi against being extradited to face the Indian courts in the estimated USD 2 billion Punjab National Bank loan scam case a twojudge panel continued to hear arguments that the diamantaire poses a high risk of suicide due to his depressive stateHis defence team claimed that his depression would worsen if sent to the iquesthostile environmentiquest of India where politicians have demonised him by prejudging his guilt the press has been vitriolic and the public has burnt his effigiesThe government of India assurances should be read reasonably benignly and one should not pick every possible hole in them Lord Justice Jeremy StuartSmith told defence barrister Edward FitzgeraldIt is in your clients interests to demonstrate the assurances arent good enough but we should take a benign approach he saidJustice Robert Jay further noted that India is a friendly foreign power and we have to honour our treaty obligations with reference to the IndiaUK Extradition Treaty signed in 1992Fitzgerald said he adopted an anxious scrutiny of the assurances because while the judiciary in India is independent the executive did not always abide by the rule of lawAlso Read Nirav Modis sister seeks ED intervention in bankruptcy proceedings against him in USIts not as if there has been an uncheckered history of utter cooperation there have been numerous cases where the court found a respondent should not be extradited to India he saidThe court was taken through the detailed assurances offered by the Indian authorities the cumulative effect of which would imply that the psychiatric diagnosis would be more than adequately managed in IndiaThis is an extremely high profile case in India and there will be many eyes on the government of India and on Mr Modis care said Helen Malcolm the Crown Prosecution Service CPS barrister on behalf of the Indian governmentBesides she pointed to several other safeguards including daily visits by Modis lawyers access by private medical practitioners and a multidisciplinary medical team agreeing a care plan within days of his arrival in IndiaThe extradition appeal now hinges on the judges ruling on whether it would be oppressive to extradite Modi given his high risk of suicide which is expected to be elevated on being extradited The mental health and human rights grounds of the appeal are the only factors in play after permission to appeal against District Judge Sam Goozees extradition order from February last year was denied on all other aspectsOn Monday the court heard from two psychiatric experts who had assessed Modi while in Wandsworth prison in southwest London and confirmed that he suffers from recurrent depressive disorder and has suicidal thoughts believing that he will die in prison either by selfharm or be killedThe experts however did not agree over whether the depression was mild or moderate and also the causative effect the extradition would have on any suicidal impulseAs a former darling jeweller with celebrities on his arm the CPS accepted that his mental health is expected to fluctuate but pointed to the very serious nature of the charges involving the PNBs missing billions The defence countered to say they were highly contested allegations of fraud and not terrorism or murderModi is the subject of two sets of criminal proceedings with the CBI case relating to a largescale fraud upon PNB through the fraudulent obtaining of letters of undertaking LoUs or loan agreements and the ED case relating to the laundering of the proceeds of that fraudHe also faces two additional charges of causing the disappearance of evidence and intimidating witnesses or criminal intimidation to cause death which were added to the CBI caseThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever