The UK High Court granted fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi permission to fight his extradition to India on mental health grounds on Monday, August 9. Judge Martin Chamberlain of the UK High Court found that an appeal into Nirav Modi’s mental health is “reasonably arguable.” The UK high court denied Nirav Modi’s appeal against his extradition to India in June.
Nirav Modi’s counsel stated in a recent plea to the UK high court to challenge his extradition that it would harm his mental health and increase “suicidal impulses.” Modi was “severely depressed,” according to Edward Fitzgerald, who requested that the extradition be halted due to his mental condition. “The content was argued on whether the argument posted forward by Nirav Modi is acceptable before the court. It is, in my opinion, that on Grounds 3 and 4, I shall give leave to appeal,” Justice Chamberlain writes in his decision.
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Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), or the right to life, liberty, and security, and Section 91 of the UK Criminal Justice Act 2003, which deals with fitness to plead, are grounds 3 and 4. Modi’s objections were disregarded by the Crown Prosecution Service, which is defending the Indian government in the case, and the court was requested to dismiss the appeal.
Modi is accused of robbing the state-owned PNB of more than $2 billion and witness intimidation and evidence destruction by the Indian government. Since March 2019, when he was detained based on India’s extradition request, the 50-year-old businessman has been held at Wandsworth Prison in southwest London.
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