{"id":210022,"date":"2025-10-19T01:36:03","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T01:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/210022\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T01:36:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T01:36:03","slug":"nirav-modi-claims-sensational-developments-to-come-in-u-k-extradition-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/210022\/","title":{"rendered":"Nirav Modi claims \u2018sensational developments\u2019 to come in U.K. extradition case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nirav\u00a0Modi<\/a>, in prison for over six years, has told a United Kingdom court there are \u201csensational developments\u201d to come when his Indian extradition case<\/a> on fraud and money laundering charges reopens for a hearing in London next month.<\/p>\n

The 54-year-old fugitive diamantaire appeared in the dock before High Court Judge Simon Tinkler at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Friday (October 17, 2025) to present his defence in an unrelated case, involving an over $8 million unpaid Bank of India debt.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Judge turned down Mr. Modi\u2019s application for a stay on the proceedings on the grounds of technical and medical constraints in prison, which is set to proceed to a trial scheduled in January 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey (Bank of India) refer to my extradition\u2026 I\u2019m still here. There will be some sensational developments, and I have never used these words before,\u201d said Mr. Modi, during a pre-trial review hearing.<\/p>\n

The fugitive diamond merchant, wanted in India in the estimated $2\u00a0billion\u00a0Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam case<\/a>, told the court he was \u201cextremely hopeful\u201d of either being discharged or granted bail after the court agreed to accept new evidence despite a \u201chigh bar\u201d in such matters.<\/p>\n

The U.K.\u2019s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has confirmed that Nirav Modi \u201chas lodged an application to reopen his (extradition) appeal\u201d, with the Indian authorities submitting their response ahead of a hearing expected towards the end of November.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Defending himself as a \u201clitigant in person\u201d, Mr. Modi read from copious handwritten notes as he addressed the Judge. Officers sat guard as their prisoner, dressed in a worn-out white t-shirt and pink track pants, spoke in mumbled tones about struggles with his eyesight and lengthy delays over access to a computer behind bars, which he stressed made any trial unfair and imbalanced.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand this is an adversarial process, and they (Bank of India) can say anything against me. But they keep on making assumptions; I would say, spend one day in prison\u2026 There needs to be some basic common sense,\u201d he said, appearing to lose his calm at one stage.<\/p>\n

Bank of India, represented by barrister Tom Beasley and RWK Goodman\u2019s Milan Kapadia, are pursuing Mr. Modi\u2019s personal guarantee related to a loan to Dubai-incorporated Firestar Diamond FZE. They argued that a stay on the proceedings would be unfair to the bank, as it would push the long-pending claim off indefinitely.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he is extradited, he will likely remain in custody\u2026 He will also be in a different time zone,\u201d Beasley told the court, adding that the bank \u201cremains sceptical\u201d about Mr. Modi\u2019s \u201cclaimed lack of funds\u201d.<\/p>\n

Justice Tinkler ruled that on balance the need to preserve the court\u2019s timetable outweighs other considerations and that all efforts to ensure an \u201cequality of arms\u201d in the case have been made.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear that some (medical) issues do affect his ability to work and will, in all likelihood, affect his ability to participate in the trial without reasonable adjustments being made,\u201d the Judge said, referencing a confidential medical report submitted to him.<\/p>\n

However, with the trial listed for seven days in January, the Judge concluded that it was sufficient time to make adjustments to meet all medical needs.<\/p>\n

He also noted that the prison authorities have indicated that a computer will be made available to Mr. Modi in a week\u2019s time, even as hard copies of all documents will be sent over to him ahead of another pre-trial hearing in early December.<\/p>\n

Mr. Modi\u2019s in-person court appearance after recent video links followed a \u201cproduction order\u201d by the court. It triggered some legal complexity of its own towards the end of the day-long hearing, as Mr. Modi had to be sent to HMP Pentonville prison in north London.<\/p>\n

The businessman appeared apprehensive about this shift from HMP Thameside in south London, where he has been lodged over the past few months, and appealed for the court to include a single-occupancy cell request in the court order.<\/p>\n

The Judge said while that was not within the court\u2019s purview, he had added directions for either all his paperwork to be moved over to him or for him to be returned to Thameside at the earliest.<\/p>\n

Also read: PNB-Nirav Modi case | Chronology of events<\/a><\/p>\n

Nirav Modi has been behind bars in London since his arrest in March 2019 and has made several bail attempts, which have all been rejected on the grounds of him posing a flight risk \u2014 most recently in May this year.<\/p>\n

There are three sets of criminal proceedings against him in India \u2014 the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case of PNB fraud, the Enforcement Directorate (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.\u00a0 \t<\/p>\n

In April 2021, then U.K. home secretary Priti Patel had ordered his extradition to face these charges in the Indian courts after a prima facie case was established against him. He had since exhausted his legal avenues to contest the order until recently, when his application to reopen his appeal was accepted in the UK and is set to be heard next month.<\/p>\n

Published – October 19, 2025 06:36 am IST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nirav\u00a0Modi, in prison for over six years, has told a United Kingdom court there are \u201csensational developments\u201d to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,13542,90473,90474,90475,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-210022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-nirav-modi","13":"tag-nirav-modi-extradition-to-india","14":"tag-pnb-case-nirav-modi","15":"tag-pnb-loan-scam-case","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}