India sends extradition request to UK for Nirav Modi

The Union government has formally dispatched an extradition request to the United Kingdom to bring back elusive diamantaire Nirav Deepak Modi. The ministry of external affairs (MEA) has informed Parliament that the extradition request for Nirav Modi, an accused in the multi-crore PNB scam, has been sent to the United Kingdom by a special diplomatic bag to the Indian High Commission in London for onward transmission to the UK authorities. 

Nirav Modi had entered the UK with valid travel documents early this year. 

Like liquor baron Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi also enjoys the legal right to stay in the UK as he had entered that country with valid travel documents, even though his Indian passport has been revoked. For India, it means an uphill task to bring him back.

While Mallya left India in 2016 after a lookout notice issued by the CBI against him was diluted, giving him protection from being arrested at the airport, Nirav Modi left India even before the investigating agencies could register a case against him in January this year .

In both the cases, the fact that fugitives had left the country on valid grounds has tied the hands of the government and its top agencies.  

The MEA told Parliament on Thursday that it has “no means to verify the travels of Modi outside India”. Neither does it have any means to ascertain the passports being used for such travel, it said. 

The top ministries and agencies have been making all out efforts for the last six months to extradite Nirav Modi. First the MEA revoked his passport on February 16 under relevant provisions of the Passport Act. Then the ministry sent this information to the CBI for further conveying it to the Interpol. Thereafter the Interpol issued two red corner notices on June 29 against Nirav Modi. After this, the ministry of home affairs (MHA) sent an extradition request to the MEA to bring back Modi. The request was then sent to the United Kingdom.

It is only after the UK home office confirms that it has received the request and approves it, an extradition warrant can be issued against Modi.