Fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi suffered a legal setback after the High Court of Justice, King’s Bench Division in London, rejected his petition seeking to reopen proceedings against his extradition order to India. The application to reopen the case was filed on the basis of the Bhandari judgement, a ruling delivered by a UK High Court in the case of defence middleman Sanjay Bhandari. In that matter, Bhandari had argued that he could face torture if extradited to India, and the court had declined his extradition on humanitarian grounds.

 

Citing the same precedent, Nirav Modi contended that he too would face a risk of torture if sent back to India. However, officials from the CBI presented arguments countering this claim during the proceedings. While delivering its decision, the UK High Court observed that the petition filed by Nirav Modi did not meet the threshold of exceptional circumstances required to justify reopening the case. The court noted that the grounds presented were not sufficient and held that it would not be appropriate to revisit the earlier ruling.

 

Nirav Modi is wanted in India in connection with the Punjab National Bank fraud case. He fled the country in 2018 and was arrested in the UK in 2019, following which British courts approved his extradition, rejecting multiple appeals.