On the 26th of April, the United Kingdom (U.K.,) Westminster Court rejected fugitive Nirav Modi’s bail for the third time, with regard to his connection with the Rs. 13,500 crores Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam. Since his arrest in March, Modi has been held in custody at Wandsworth Prison in South West London.
During the last one month of his arrest, it is rumoured, Modi made death threats to several of the witnesses who came forward to testify against him.
However, his lawyers (the same as those who worked on Vijay Mallya’s extradition) denied these allegations and said their client had done no such thing.
In the first bail hearing, conducted on the 29th of March, Emma Arbuthnot, the Chief Magistrate of the Westminster Magistrates’ Court, denied Modi’s bail on the grounds, there was a substantial risk of Modi failing to surrender.
Modi has tried everything possible to evade the long arm of the law. From trying to buy his way out of jail and into a house arrest by paying officials and to Modi trying to acquire citizenship in Vanuatu, a group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, all of Modi’s recent activities went against him this time.
Nirav Modi has been living in the United Kingdom since the year 2015. Living there on an investor visa, Modi fled to the Country at a time when getting residency right in the United Kingdom could be done by investing a minimum of 2 million pounds.
He was finally caught by the Scotland Yard in the U.K., whilst trying to open a bank account in the Country. Post his arrest, it was found, Modi had not one, but several fake passports to his name!
The next hearing for the Nirav Modi PNB fraud case is going to take place on the 30th of May.
Stay tuned for more updates.
