ED given the go ahead to start extradition process against Nirav Modi

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jun 27, 2018

On June 26, a special court in Mumbai allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to initiate the extradition process against Nirav Modi and extradition requests have now been sent to several countries.

On Tuesday, the Judge MS Azmi formally allowed the ED to begin the process to attempt to extradite Nirav Modi to India to face trial for the Rs 13,000 crore ($2 billion) fraud at the Punjab National Bank (PNB) in which he is implicated. This follows the court’s decision to issue a non-bailable arrest warrant last week.

On June 27, the ED made the extradition application. Hiten Venegaokar, the ED Counsel, said in a statement that the order is sent to the Ministry of External Affairs and then it will be forwarded to the UK government. The extradition request has been sent to a number of countries including the UK and Belgium, where Modi was last reported to be. As Modi has been travelling internationally, locating him has proved a challenge for the ED.

The charge sheet filed against Modi accuses him of violating the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Modi’s Uncle and the promoter for the Gitanjali Group, Mehul Choksi, is also accused of fraud as part of the case and first information reports (FIRs) have been registered against both by the ED and the Central Bureau of Information.