New Delhi/London, May 16: The High Court in London on Thursday rejected a fresh bail application filed by diamantaire Nirav Modi, who has been in prison in the UK for over six years while fighting against his extradition to face the Indian courts in the Rs 13,000 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, which he is charged with orchestrating with his uncle Mehul Choksi.
The 54-year-old’s legal counsel argued for bail on the grounds of “passage of time” and the adverse impact on his health in his London prison.
However, Justice Michael Fordham ruled at the Royal Courts of Justice that Nirav remained a flight risk and continued to have funds at his disposal to influence witnesses in his case.
“Fresh bail petition filed by Nirav Deepak Modi was rejected Thursday by the High Court of Justice, King’s Bench Division, London. The bail arguments were strongly opposed by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) advocate, who was ably assisted by a strong CBI team consisting of investigating and law officers who travelled to London for this purpose,” the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said in a statement in New Delhi.
There are three sets of criminal proceedings against Nirav in India – the CBI case of fraud on the Punjab National Bank (PNB), the 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.
He was arrested on an extradition warrant on March 19, 2019, and then UK home secretary Priti Patel ordered his extradition in April 2021.
Nirav has since exhausted his legal appeals in the case up to the Supreme Court in London and made several previous bail applications, with his last attempt a year ago at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court in May 2024.
Earlier this year, he appeared by videolink from Thameside prison for another London High Court hearing seeking a stay over Bank of India pursuing repayment of a loan amounting to over USD 8 million owed by a Dubai-incorporated company connected with him.
“He appears on remand pending the outcome of a ‘confidential’ process which is likely to be ongoing late into 2026… (and) unlikely to conclude soon,” noted Justice David Bailey in February.
This is believed to refer to an application for asylum in the UK, but there have so far only been indirect and tangential references to this in UK courts.
Nirav has been lodged in prison in London since March 2019, accused of siphoning off Rs 6498.20 crore of the total scam amount.
His extradition has already been approved by the High Court of UK in favour of the Government of India, the CBI statement said.
“This was his 10th bail petition since his detention in the UK, which was successfully defended by the CBI through the Crown Prosecution Service, London,” the agency said.
Nirav’s uncle Mehul Choksi, a co-accused in the PNB fraud case, was arrested by the authorities in Belgium where he had gone for treatment, it said.
The duo has been accused of siphoning off over Rs 13,000 crore from the PNB using fraudulent letters of undertaking and foreign letters of credit.
Officials at PNB’s Brady House branch in Mumbai issued letters of undertaking (LoUs) and foreign letters of credit (FLCs) to their firms without any sanctioned limit or cash margin and without making entries in the bank’s central system to evade any scrutiny in case of a default.
LoUs are a guarantee given by a bank on behalf of its client to a foreign bank. If the client does not repay to the foreign bank, the liability falls on the guarantor bank.
Based on the LoUs issued by the PNB, money was lent by the SBI, Mauritius; Allahabad Bank, Hong Kong; Axis Bank, Hong Kong; Bank of India, Antwerp; Canara Bank, Mamana; and SBI, Frankfurt.
Since the accused companies did not repay the amount availed against the said fraudulent LoUs and FLCs, PNB made the payments, including the overdue interest, to the overseas banks, which advanced buyer’s credit and discounted the bills against the fraudulent LoUs and FLCs issued by the PNB, the CBI alleged. (PTI)
