Absconding business tycoon Nirav Modi, the prime accused in the multi-thousand crore PNB scam, and someone who has Interpol’s “red corner” notice against him, is living and doing business in London. The British government gave him a visa even after an FIR was lodged against him in India and an arrest warrant was issued against him by an Indian court in June, said London-based sources aware of the matter.
Nirav Modi was said to have fled to Belgium in the first week of January just as the news of the Rs 11,400-crore scam was about to break and from there, he entered UK sometime after June. Sources said that Nirav Modi was also issued a credit card by a UK bank in the last week of November, despite him being pronounced an absconder from law.
According to sources, Nirav Modi, who was given a visitor visa by the UK government, has opened a new business related to diamonds and jewels in London, which has led to questions on why he was being treated with kid gloves by the Theresa May government. As per rules, an individual on a visitor visa cannot open a bank account or practise businesses of any kind.
In an email reply to The Sunday Guardian’s queries, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the UK government said that a response would be shared soon. However, this newspaper did not receive any response until the report went to print.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has twice approached the UK and Belgium governments seeking Nirav Modi’s extradition but has not received satisfactory responses. The sources said that Nirav Modi has been assured by his advisers and legal team that the chances of him being extradited from UK are remote.
This confidence of his lawyers and advisers is based on the fact that in the last 20 years, the UK government, while responding to extradition requests that have been made by the Indian government against different individuals, has accepted only one—that of Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, an accused in the Gujarat riots case, who was extradited in October 2016.
As many as 131 extradition requests made by India are pending with the UK. This track record has emboldened Nirav Modi to believe that he might never be extradited.
The discouraging attitude of the British government, when it comes to heeding to extradition requests made by India, can be gauged from the fact that the case of Tiger Hanif, a close aide of underworld done Dawood Ibrahim and accused of carrying out bomb blasts in India, is still awaiting the Britain Home Secretary’s signature to extradite him to India. The request has been pending with his office since 2013.
Under the Extradition Act-2003 of the UK, India is a Category-II Type-B country. Extradition to sich countries is rare and takes a long time. The United States and most European countries are in Category-I.