UK court denies plea against extradition; setback for Nirav Modi

London: Fugitive Nirav Modi, the diamond merchant wanted in India, faced a setback on Thursday after the High Court in London denied him permission to appeal against his extradition order in the UK Supreme Court.

Nirav Modi is to stand trial on fraud and money laundering charges, and India is on getting him deported from the UK.

At the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay ruled that Modi's application to appeal before the top court there has been rejected.

"…the Appellant's (Nirav Modi) application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court is refused," the order stated.

Only last month, 51-year-old Modi lost an appeal he filed on mental health grounds. The same two-judge High Court bench ruled that his risk of suicide is not such that it would be either unjust or oppressive to extradite him to India to face charges in the estimated USD 2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam case.

Nirav Modi is now lodged at Wandsworth Prison in London after he was arrested on an extradition warrant in March 2019.