LONDON:Fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi got trapped inside a secure room inside prison and had to press the emergency button to get rescued when he appeared at Westminster magistrates’ court in London on Friday via video link.

Nirav was remanded in custody for another 28 days. “You will be back on the 24th of May in just the same way for a short hearing via video link. The 30th of May will be your first case management hearing when you will produced before the court, not via video link,” chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot, who is presiding over his trial, said. Case management hearings are pre-trial hearings at which the trial, evidence, witnesses, etc., are planned.

The 48-year-old was appearing via video link from Wandsworth Prison for his first “video-link review hearing” at Westminster magistrates’ court. It is a legal requirement under the Extradition Act of 2003 that requested persons who are held on remand, appear before a judge every 28 days. The hearings normally last only a few minutes, unless either side raises something important with the judge.

Once Nirav’s five-minute hearing was over, the press and his lawyers left the courtroom and the next case commenced. But when the clerk switched the TV on, Nirav was still standing there in front of the camera in his grey tracksuit bottoms, and grey and navy sweater.

“Oh, you are still here?” chief magistrate Arbuthnot said, surprised as she was expecting to see another prisoner. “I can’t get out,” Nirav said. The room was locked.

“Can you call security?” Arbuthnot asked. Nirav said he did not know how to. He then pressed a green emergency button. The clerk switched the TV off and after a few minutes switched it on again but Nirav was still there. “I have pressed the emergency button . No one has come,” Nirav said. The video stayed on and showed Nirav pacing the room for several minutes. The clerk switched it off and on again and finally, after 10 minutes, the security guard arrived and Nirav was able to get out.

The public gallery was packed at the start of the hearing with people sitting on the floor. The clerk ordered anyone not seated on a chair to leave before the case began. Several members of the press had to go outside.

The celebrity jeweller looked more relaxed than his last appearance on March 29 when he had been unshaven and looked an emotional wreck. At that hearing, his second application for bail, with a bail security offer of up to £1 million (Rs 9 crore) was refused after the court heard he allegedly tried to purchase citizenship of Vanuatu for $200,000 (Rs 139 lakh), destroyed evidence and threatened to kill a witness. But Nirav’s barrister, Clare Montgomery QC, at that hearing had said there were “serious grounds for doubting the credibility of these allegations”.

By Friday, after six weeks in one of Britain’s most overcrowded jails, Nirav had gained weight, shaved, trimmed his handlebar moustache, and even smiled as he sat in front of a table and looked into the camera.

Nirav was represented by Jessica Jones of Matrix Chambers and the government of India by Nilofar Bawla. Arbuthnot looked surprised to see Nirav when he appeared and said “Oh it’s you” and smiled.

Nirav confirmed his name and date of birth in a loud, confident voice. Neither lawyer had anything to raise so Nirav was remanded in custody for another 28 days.

The 48-year-old was arrested on an extradition warrant in London on March 19. He is accused of defrauding Punjab National Bank between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017 of between $1 billion and $2 billion (Rs 7,000 crore and Rs 14,000 crore) via the issuance of 144 fraudulent letters of undertaking through three of his companies and then laundering the proceeds of the crime.

There was no bail application made on Friday. Nirav has already had his bail rejected twice by Westminster magistrates’ court. He can now only apply for a bail a third time if there is a change of circumstances. He can also appeal the bail refusal in the high court at any time during the extradition proceedings.

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