india

Updated: Apr 25, 2019 17:44 IST

After being refused bail twice, diamantaire Nirav Modi is expected to seek bail again when the Westminster Magistrates Court takes up his case on Friday in a ‘case management hearing’ before the extradition trial begins later in the year.

Modi, 48, is lodged in the Wandsworth prison in south-west London, from where he will appear in court via video-link. He was denied bail on March 20 after being arrested in central London the previous day, and again on March 29, despite offering £1 million as security deposit.

Wanted in India to face charges of major financial irregularities linked to loans from a Mumbai branch of the Punjab National Bank, among others, Modi earlier sought citizenship of Vanuatu through an investment scheme, which was declined, the court was told at the last hearing.

The legal team defending Modi offered that Modi would follow stringent bail conditions, if granted, such as wearing an electronic tag on the ankle, which operates on GPS technology that enables the police to track the wearer’s location at any time.

However, chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot accepted the prosecution’s objections and denied him bail due to a flight risk, the high value and seriousness of fraud in the scandal in India, and his “lack of community ties” in the Indian diaspora in the United Kingdom.

The Crown Prosecution Service representing India has until May 24 to serve papers detailing Modi’s involvement in the loans scam. There was some criticism of the quality of India’s paperwork at the March 29 hearing, particularly in relation to ‘clean documents’, pagination and numbering.

Meanwhile, the appeals court of the high court has not yet scheduled a date for the oral hearing of controversial businessman Vijay Mallya’s application for leave to appeal against the home secretary’s order, extraditing him to India. His ‘written’ application has been previously rejected.