Heena Sharma Blog

  Nirav Modi , once touted as a billionaire designer diamantaire, and now wanted on charges of fraud and money laundering in the $2-billion (Rs 14,000-crore) Punjab National Bank scam case , was on Thursday ordered by a London court to be extradited to India, with the judge ruling that the 49-year-old did have a case to answer before Indian courts. The verdict will, as is the procedure in Britain, be referred to the country’s home secretary, Priti Patel, to authorise deportation at her discretion. But Nirav Modi is permitted to appeal against the ruling to the high court. After nearly two years of proceedings since he was arrested at the British capital’s well-known shopping precinct of Oxford Street, a district judge at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Samuel Goozee, ruled: “I am satisfied that there is evidence upon which Mr Modi could be convicted… A prima facie case is established…He has a case to answer for in India.” The Prime Minister’s Office has acknowledged it wa...

The UK High Court on Wednesday rejected Nirav Modi 's bail application, his fourth attempt as the diamond merchant fights his extradition from Britain to India in the nearly $2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud and money laundering case. In her judgment handed down at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Justice Ingrid Simler concluded there are "substantial grounds" to believe that the 48-year-old fugitive diamantaire would fail to surrender as he does possess the means to "abscond". Reiterating similar concerns as those raised by the lower court in the UK during previous bail hearings, Judge Simler ruled that after considering all the material "carefully", she had found strong evidence to suggest there had been interference with witnesses and destruction of evidence in the case and concluded it can still occur. "The applicant has access to considerable financial resources, supported by an increased [bail bond security] offer ...

Fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi was on Wednesday arrested by the police two days after a London court issued an arrest warrant against him. He will be produced before the court today, according to TV reports. Nirav Modi is the main accused in the $2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case. Earlier, CBI sources had told news agency PTI an extradition request has been sent to the United Kingdom through the External Affairs ministry. Nirav Modi has fled after allegedly siphoning off about Rs 13,0000 crore from Punjab National Bank using Letters of Undertaking in collusion with his uncle Mehul Choski. The 48-year old Nirav Modi was recently spotted in a tony neighbourhood of London wearing a 10,000 Pound Ostrich hide jacket by the London-based newspaper The Telegraph. On Tuesday also, several Indian channels spotted him in the area. After fleeing from the country in the first week of January last year, he was seen in a Press Information Bureau group photograph of CEOs...

A crucial Income Tax investigation report, prepared 8 months before the PNB scam , on fugitive diamond jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi highlighting bogus purchases, huge over-valuation of stocks, suspicious payments to relatives, dubious loans among other information was not shared with other law enforcement agencies as there was “no protocol”, The Indian Express has reported. The report said the tax department, before February 2018, also did not share its findings through the Regional Economic Intelligence Council (REIC), a mechanism for sharing of information between various law enforcement agencies The tax department report on Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi , which ran into around 10,000 pages, was finalised by the agency on June 8, 2017. However, it was not shared with other agencies like the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) until Februa...

MEA added India had sent request to Malaysia to extradite Naik and it was waiting for a response Current Affairs News : The government has left no stone unturned in convincing a UK court that fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya must be extradited to India, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said on Friday. "Extradition hearings have been going on. I understand that the closing submissions in the case have already been made. We now wait for the verdict. I can only assure you that we have left no stone unturned in our efforts to convince the courts that the extradition of Vijay Mallya to India should take place," Kumar told reporters in response to a question. In February 2017, India made a formal request to the UK for the extradition of Mallya, who faces charges of financial misconduct amounting to nearly Rs 90 billion in debt owed to Indian banks by his defunct Kingfisher Airlines. When asked about the location of fugitive...