From flashy diamantaire to fugitive: Nirav Modi’s long road to extradition
London, February 25 Nirav Modi's story up until the UK court verdict on Thursday, just two days before his 50th birthday, is one of stark contrasts. From someone flush with diamonds, quite literally, as a member of a Gujarati family of gem traders who grew up in the European jewellery hub of Antwerp in Belgium, to ending up holed up in a jail cell in one Europe's most overcrowded prisons. The diamond merchant wanted in India on charges of fraud and money laundering in the estimated $ 2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case, lost his legal battle against extradition as a UK judge ruled that he does have a case to answer before the Indian courts. He has been lodged at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London since his arrest on an extradition warrant in March 2019 at a central London bank branch, where he was trying to set up a new account. He had been staying nearby at a plush penthouse in Centrepoint in the heart of the UK capital, regularly walking his dog to an apparently new jewellery business nearby.
From flashy diamantaire to fugitive: Nirav Modi’s long road to extradition
London, February 25 Nirav Modi's story up until the UK court verdict on Thursday, just two days before his 50th birthday, is one of stark contrasts. From someone flush with diamonds, quite literally, as a member of a Gujarati family of gem traders who grew up in the European jewellery hub of Antwerp in Belgium, to ending up holed up in a jail cell in one Europe's most overcrowded prisons. The diamond merchant wanted in India on charges of fraud and money laundering in the estimated $ 2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case, lost his legal battle against extradition as a UK judge ruled that he does have a case to answer before the Indian courts. He has been lodged at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London since his arrest on an extradition warrant in March 2019 at a central London bank branch, where he was trying to set up a new account. He had been staying nearby at a plush penthouse in Centrepoint in the heart of the UK capital, regularly walking his dog to an apparently new jewellery business nearby.