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UK court rejects bail application of Nirav Modi, next hearing April 26

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London, Mar 29: A UK court rejected Nirav Modi's second bail application on Friday, saying there are "substantial grounds" to believe the fugitive diamantaire will fail to surrender. The hearing marks the beginning of case management as part of extradition proceedings.

Hearing in Nirav Modis bail application begins at UK court

Looking more dishevelled and dressed in a similar white shirt as his first court appearance last week, the 48-year-old was brought to the dock to be produced before Westminster Magistrates Court Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot and sat behind a glass enclosure as the hearing got underway.

Modi, 48, is the subject of an extradition request by India, where he is accused of major financial irregularities running into thousands of crores linked to the Punjab National Bank.

Looking more dishevelled and dressed in a similar white shirt as his first court appearance last week, the 48-year-old was brought to the dock to be produced before Westminster Magistrates Court Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot and sat behind a glass enclosure as the hearing got underway.

[How Nirav Modi was tracked down and arrested]

Rejecting Modi's bail plea after hearing both defence and prosecution, Judge Arbuthnot said his attempt to try and seek citizenship of Vanuatu, a remote island country located in the South Pacific Ocean, shows he was trying to move away from India at an important time. "There are substantial grounds to believe he will fail to surrender," said the judge, who fixed April 26 as the next date of hearing. Modi will appear via video link from jail at the next hearing.

The Crown Prosecution Service or CPS, which appeared on behalf of Indian authorities, argued in court that there is a great risk of Nirav Modi fleeing if he is granted bail. "There is a real risk that he could flee, interfere with witnesses, interfere with evidence," the prosecution said.

Describing him as the "opposite of a flight risk" during the first bail application hearing last week, Modi's defence team had offered 500,000 pounds as security and also submitted to any stringent conditions that may be imposed upon their client.

Modi was arrested by uniformed Scotland Yard officers from a Metro Bank branch in central London as he attempted to open a new bank account on March 19. During his first court appearance a day after, it emerged that the diamantaire accused of defrauding India's state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) via fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) had been in possession of multiple passports, since revoked by the Indian authorities.

While one passport is now in possession of the Metropolitan Police, a second expired passport is lying with the UK Home Office and a third with the UK's Driving and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) for a driver's licence.

Besides the passports, Modi also possesses multiple residency cards, some of them expired, but covering countries/regions such as the UAE, Singapore and Hong Kong. His defence team tried to establish his very "visible" and "lawful" residence at his luxury Centre Point apartment in London's West End, paying his local council tax and also using a National Insurance number, allocated to legal UK residents for purposes of work.

The CPS challenged all claims to counter the first bail plea and pointed out that Modi had "deliberately evaded justice" and not returned to India despite a series criminal summons issued by Indian courts.

(with PTI inputs)

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