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London:
Fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, who’s preventing extradition to India, was additional remanded in custody till August 6 after he appeared at an everyday remand listening to earlier than a UK court docket at the moment on expenses over the almost $2 billion Punjab National Bank money-laundering case.
The 49-year-old jeweller, who has been lodged at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London since his arrest in March final 12 months, appeared through videolink earlier than Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London for an everyday 28-day “call-over” listening to till the second leg of his extradition trial begins in September.
“Nice to see you looking well,” mentioned Judge Arbuthnot, as she knowledgeable Nirav Modi of his subsequent videolink call-over listening to on August 6.
In May, District Judge Samuel Goozee presided over the primary a part of the extradition trial, held in a partial distant setting as a result of coronavirus lockdown restrictions, with the second half scheduled for a five-day listening to from September 7.
“I hope Nirav Modi by the time we get to September, the current restrictions on movement from prisons have been eased and you can be in court in person to follow the proceedings,” the decide had informed the accused, on the finish of a four-day partial listening to of the case on May 14.
Nirav Modi had been following the court docket proceedings from a room at Wandsworth Prison and may very well be seen taking notes in the course of the course of the trial.
The first a part of the case centered on establishing a prima facie case in opposition to him however the schedule needed to be re-timetabled as the federal government of India submitted an extra set of paperwork as “corroboratory evidence”.
The decide allowed the extra proof to be launched however agreed that Nirav Modi’s defence staff would require sufficient time to “digest” them.
Therefore, a listening to already deliberate to take care of a second extradition request, made by the Indian authorities and licensed by UK Home Secretary Priti Patel earlier this 12 months on two further expenses of “causing the disappearance of evidence” and intimidating witnesses or “criminal intimidation to cause death”, has been successfully prolonged to conclude the prima facie case arguments.
The decide has indicated that the 2 requests are “inextricably linked” and subsequently he can be handing down an total judgment on the conclusion of the second listening to, scheduled between September 7 and 11.
The expenses in opposition to the diamond service provider centre round his corporations Diamonds R Us, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds making fraudulent use of a credit score facility supplied by the Punjab National Bank (PNB), generally known as “letters of undertaking” (LoUs).
Nirav Modi’s staff has sought to counter the allegations of fraud by deposing witnesses to determine the volatility of the gems commerce and that the LoUs had been normal follow.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian authorities, have been laying out the case that plenty of PNB workers conspired with Modi to make sure LoUs had been issued to his firms with out guaranteeing they had been topic to the required credit score verify, with out recording the issuance of the LoUs and with out charging the required fee upon the transactions. This resulted in a fraud amounting to just about $2 billion.
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