UK court rejects Nirav Modi's plea to reopen extradition case

The High Court of Justice, King’s Bench Division, in London on Wednesday rejected fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi’s petition seeking to reopen proceedings against his extradition order to India, marking another step toward his return to face charges in the Rs 6,498-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case. The court ruled that the application did not meet the threshold of "exceptional circumstances" required to revisit an already settled matter.
The petition was argued by the UK's Crown Prosecution Service, supported by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team that travelled to London for the hearing. Officials said the reopening request relied heavily on developments linked to the Sanjay Bhandari case, but Indian authorities successfully countered the arguments with coordinated legal and investigative efforts. Nirav Modi has been in custody in the UK since March 2019 following his arrest in connection with the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case. Indian agencies, led by the CBI, have been pursuing his extradition since 2018.A district judge at Westminster Magistrates’ Court ordered his extradition on February 25, 2021.
In his latest attempt, Nirav Modi argued that new evidence constituted "supervening events" that warranted reopening the case. His plea cited concerns about potential torture, threats to his life, and alleged shortcomings in India's prison system. He relied on observations made in the Bhandari judgment and referred to the US State Department's 2024 human rights report on India to support his claims. However, the High Court dismissed these arguments, stating that they did not significantly alter the original risk assessment.
Modi was declared a fugitive economic offender under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018. The Enforcement Directorate has attached assets worth Rs2,598 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, and ₹981 crore has been restored to the victim banks. Despite repeated legal challenges, courts in the UK have consistently upheld the extradition order, bringing him closer to being returned to India to stand trial.