Nirav Modi borrowing around 10 lakh rupees a month to settle unpaid legal costs to UK court: Report

• Nirav remains behind bars at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London, from where he appeared via video link for a hearing at Barkingside Magistrates’ Court
• A two-judge bench in the Royal Courts of Justice in London refused Nirav Modi’s application for permission to appeal to the SC
• On being asked how he intended to finance monthly amount, Nirav told he had been borrowing money as he didn't have sufficient funds

Nirav Modi, the fugitive diamond merchant who is set to stand trial in India on fraud and money laundering charges, has claimed he has no funds and is resorting to borrowing money to pay court-ordered legal fees of more than 150 000 pounds.

According to officials, judges at a procedural fines hearing granted his request to be allowed to pay £10,000 a month ahead of a review hearing in six months' time. Nirav remains behind bars at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London, from where he appeared via video link on Thursday for a hearing at Barkingside Magistrates' Court in east London over unpaid court costs or fines of £150,247 ordered by the High Court in London relating to his extradition appeal.

The 52-year-old former billionaire lost his legal battle at the UK High Court last year against extradition to India in an estimated US$2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan fraud case. But his case is now said to be “time-barred”, suggesting more ongoing litigation. When asked how he intended to finance the monthly amount, Nirav told the court that he was borrowing the money because he did not have enough funds as his assets were frozen in India due to extradition proceedings.

In December last year, a two-judge bench at the Royal Courts of Justice in London rejected Nirav Modi's application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court on the grounds of suicide risk and also rejected his request to confirm a point of law that ended his extradition possibilities of appeal in the British courts. The case may be the subject of further litigation, UK Home Office sources said, possibly hinting at a parallel confidential political asylum appeals process.

At the final appeal hearing in the case at London's High Court in November 2022, Justices Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay ruled that they were “far from convinced that Mr Modi's mental state and risk of suicide are such that it would be either unfair or the oppressor to deliver him up”. Their verdict also accepted that the Government of India would treat with “due seriousness” its assurances about Nirav's medical care after his extradition and detention in Barrack 12 of Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai.

The appeal was dismissed three years after Nirav Modi was arrested in March 2019 on an extradition warrant based on charges filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the businessman. There are three criminal proceedings against the diamond magnate in India – a CBI case related to the PNB fraud that caused losses of over £700 million, an ED case related to the alleged laundering of the proceeds of that fraud, and a third fraud case criminal proceedings involving alleged tampering with evidence and witnesses in CBI proceedings.

Then UK Home Secretary Priti Patel ordered Nirav's extradition following a ruling by Judge Sam Goozee of Westminster Magistrates' Court in April 2021.