Nirav Modi will be provided with “a thick cotton mat, a pillow sheet and a blanket” in barrack 12 at Arthur Road Jail of Mumbai, said district judge Sam Goozee in Westminster Magistrates court in London on Thursday, paving way for the much awaited extradition of the diamantaire to India to face criminal charges of money laundering and bank fraud.
“He will be able to apply for a bed on medical grounds. He will have access to drinking water ‘at will’ and to the bathroom which is attached to the cell which appears to be clean and is newly decorated,” the judge said.
Modi is a key accused in the multi-crore Punjab National Bank scam being probed by the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI.
What turned the tables on Modi was the court's key observations on the plea taken by his own counsel that the ED case of money laundering was piggybacking on the CBI case of criminal conspiracy.
The judge said that the counsel of the accused, Clare Montgomery, had conceded in their own final written submissions that the “ED case of money laundering is parasitic on whether prima facie case of conspiracy to defraud has been made out”.
In his 83 page judgment, judge Goozee further said: “If a prima facie case is made out on the conspiracy to defraud, then Ms Mongomery accept that there will necessarily be a prima facie case of money laundering.”
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“Having found a prima facie case on the conspiracy, for the sake of brevity, I am not going to embark on setting out the full evidence relied on within the ED request and my evaluation thereof. It is a point conceded by those representing Nirav Modi and I find there is prima facie case of money laundering,” judge Goozee said while concluding the hearing of the extradition case.
He said Modi’s extradition would be compatible with Human Rights Act 1998 and rejected the challenges raised by his counsel. He said he was sending the case to the Secretary of State for a decision as to whether Nirav Modi is to be extradited.
He said Modi has a right to appeal to the High Court against the extradition. However, if he exercises his right of appeal, the appeal will not be heard until the Secretary of State has made their decision. “The appeal can be on a point of law or fact or both,” said the judge .
Meanwhile, the judge was satisfied with the Indian government’s assurances about prison conditions for Modi.
This has came as a victory for India and a clear shift in stand by the UK courts which have for long been critical of Indian prison conditions, thereby refusing to extradite accused lodged in jails in that country like Tiger Haneef, wanted for the 1993 bomb blasts in Surat in Gujarat.
Judge Goozee, in fact, said the prison size and conditions in India were better than Modi’s current cell in that country. The judge was relying on videos provided by the Indian government among others to show that the barrack Modi would be lodged in has a lavatory; shower and the basin has a constant supply of water.
“He will be able to wash each day and will receive adequate food. He may be allowed food from home if the court permits,” the judge said.
The judge also said “there is sufficient security .. a prison officer and a guard are on duty 24 hours a day and the inmates of Barrack No. 12 do not mix with other prisoners.”
“I accept further information from the government of India that there has never been any violence in the cell because of the high-profile nature of the prisoners held there,” Judge Goozee said.
Nirav Modi has been facing two sets of criminal proceedings in the UK. The first set of proceedings were by the CBI related to large-scale fraud upon the Punjab National Bank. The second set of proceedings were brought by the Enforcement Directorate related to the laundering of the proceeds of that fraud.
On February 11, 2020, the government had issued a fresh extradition request for Nirav Modi, adding two additional offences as part of the CBI case. These offences are related to allegations that Modi has interfered with the CBI investigation by causing the disappearance of evidence and intimidating witnesses.
