To get Nirav Modi back to India, how the MEA is going all out

New Delhi, Dec 20: The Ministry of External Affairs has approached the United Arab Emirates seeking the extradition of Nirav Modi, a prime accused in the PNB scam. The request is in addition to the one made with the United Kingdom as well.

The MEA has also sought the extradition of Modi's brother Neeshal Modi and his close aide Subhash Shankar Parab. Two separate requests have also been sent out to Belgium and Egypt to extradite Neeshal and Parab.

Minister of State for External Affairs, V K Singh informed the Lok Sabha that extradition requests for all three were sent to the UAE in the month of August. He also said that a separate request for extradition of Neeshal had been sent to Belgium in October 2018 and another one in the case of Parab was forwarded to the Egyptian government in the same month.

India has had a good track record when it comes to extraditions from the UAE. Since 2002, 66 persons have been extradited from various countries of which the UAE alone has sent 18, the most recent one being James Christian Michel.

However, with the UK, India has had not much success. There have been 29 requests made since 2002, but only one has been extradited. The only one to be brought back was Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, an accused in the Gujarat riots case. The track record with the UK is bad despite the existence of a bilateral extradition treaty.