Nirav Modi's Legal Battle Continues: Seeks Trial Delay in UK Due to Prison Constraints

Nirav Modi has been incarcerated in London since his arrest related to extradition proceedings in March 2019.

London:

Fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi, who is wanted in India on fraud and money laundering charges, is currently constrained to a small prison cell where he must share a desk with other inmates and has limited access to his legal documentation, the High Court in London was informed on Friday.

The 54-year-old defendant in the estimated USD 2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam was transferred from HMP Thameside in south London to HMP Pentonville in October to facilitate his appearance at a court hearing for an unrelated debt case.

During a pre-trial review hearing regarding the USD 8-million unpaid Bank of India debt, Judge Simon Tinkler was notified that the accused was requesting an adjournment of the trial scheduled for January 2026 to allow him additional time to prepare his defense and witness statement.

"It seems to me that Mr Modi would benefit from having access to his previous handwritten notes," Judge Tinkler stated.

"It seems to me that we are very close to the point at which the absence of papers for Mr Modi would mean that he is not in a position to prepare for the trial in a way that means he can fairly present his case. This is, in particular, in relation to the disclosure documents, including his annotations, which, on his own evidence, took some six weeks or eight weeks to compile," he added.

Nirav Modi's transfer between the prisons, both Category B men's facilities for relatively low-risk convicts, was described during the online hearing as a "logistic convenience".

In his judgment, Justice Tinkler effectively postponed the adjournment application until another review hearing scheduled for December 19. He also issued a court order requiring HMP Thameside to ensure that all paperwork from the former prison cell is transferred to Nirav Modi's new accommodation. Unlike at a previous in-person hearing in October, when the diamantaire represented himself as a "Litigant in Person", barrister James Kinman argued on his behalf, emphasizing that his client would face a "substantial disadvantage" if the trial were not delayed from January 2026.

"This trial will no longer be fair as Mr Modi is facing extremely difficult constraints in a small room with a shared desk and no IT facilities," Kinman argued.

Bank of India's barrister, Tom Beasley, opposed any further adjournment, pointing to several delaying tactics by Nirav Modi and also to his pending extradition to India.

"There is an opportunity to go ahead with the trial now before he is held in custody in India," Beasley stated.

Nirav Modi's barrister confirmed that a hearing to reopen the unrelated extradition case is scheduled for later this month and stated that there was a "real possibility" that his client would either not be extradited at all or at least not before "very late in 2026".

Nirav Modi, dressed in a grey t-shirt, observed the proceedings from a booth in HMP Pentonville prison and spoke briefly only to assert his lack of access to legal documents. Bank of India, represented by RWK Goodman, is pursuing the diamantaire's personal guarantee related to a loan to Dubai-incorporated Firestar Diamond FZE.

Meanwhile, Nirav Modi has remained behind bars in London since his extradition-related arrest in March 2019 and has made multiple bail attempts, all of which have been rejected due to him being considered a flight risk - most recently in May this year.

There are three sets of criminal proceedings against him in India - the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case of PNB fraud, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case relating to the alleged laundering of the proceeds of that fraud, and a third set of criminal proceedings involving alleged interference with evidence and witnesses in the CBI proceedings. In April 2021, then UK home secretary Priti Patel ordered his extradition to face these charges in the Indian courts after a prima facie case was established against him. He had since exhausted his legal avenues to contest the order, until recently, when his application to reopen his appeal was accepted in the UK and is set to be heard later this month.