UK home secretary sent Nirav Modi’s extradition request to court: ED

Reiterating the Ministry of External Affairs’ statement that India has already sent a request for extradition of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, the Enforcement Directorate Saturday said the London authorities have forwarded the plea to a court for initiating proceedings against the fugitive billionaire.

The agency announced on Twitter, “Request for Extradition of Nirav Modi to India was sent in July 2018 to UK. The UK Central Authority of Home Office has confirmed that the Extradition Request has been sent to the Westminster Magistrate Court for the District Judge for further proceedings.”

According to sources, sources in the ED said they were officially informed about UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s move to forward the case to a London court about two days back. This move takes the process of extraditing and bringing back



Modi to face the law in India to the next stage, the sources said.

A joint team of the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) would soon travel to the UK to apprise the lawyers about the case and evidence against Modi, in a similar fashion that was done in the case of another absconding bank-fraud accused, Vijay Mallya.

Earlier in the day, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar confirmed that the government was aware of Modi’s whereabouts which is why India sent an extradition request.

“We are aware that (Nirav Modi) is in the UK, otherwise we wouldn’t have requested for extradition,” Kumar said at his weekly briefing in New Delhi. “We made a request, based on information provided by the CBI and ED, in August last year. Despite what we see on television, the status remains the same.”