Former UK Home Secretary Priti Patel Says India Was ‘Hugely Angry’ Over Nirav Modi Extradition Delay

Former UK home secretary Priti Patel has said she is “appalled and horrified” that fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi remains in Britain despite his extradition being approved in 2021, saying the Indian government was “hugely angry” over Britain’s failure to extradite him and that it complicated discussions between the two countries on the return of failed asylum seekers.

According to PTI, Patel made the remarks in an episode of The Daily Telegraph’s podcast The Diamond King, due to be released next week. She said India’s frustration over Britain’s failure to extradite Modi had complicated discussions during her tenure as home secretary, with New Delhi pushing back on accepting visa overstayers and receiving failed asylum seekers. Patel, the British Indian politician who signed off on Modi’s extradition order in April 2021 after a prima facie case was established in court, is now the shadow foreign secretary on the Conservative Opposition benches. Modi is wanted for one of India’s biggest banking frauds.

The Diamond King, a four-part podcast series, traces The Daily Telegraph’s discovery of the fugitive diamond merchant living in a luxury London flat before his arrest by Scotland Yard in March 2019.

“If our system were judicious and doing the right thing, rather than tying itself up in process and excuses, he should not be in this country,” Patel is quoted as saying.

“I’m actually pretty appalled and horrified that he’s still here, and I have to say, I suspect that really makes the India government feel quite demoralised about even working with us,” she said.

PTI reported that the 55-year-old jeweller remains in Pentonville prison in north London in connection with the USD 2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud and money laundering case. He has exhausted his legal options in the UK and reportedly has also lost a last-ditch plea before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in France, with his extradition seen as imminent.

Patel said that during her time as home secretary in the Conservative government between 2019 and 2022, the case complicated matters for her because India “would really push back” on taking visa overstayers.

“I had a hell of a challenge getting them [India] to sign off on receiving failed asylum seekers... and I’m convinced it’s because we had this high-profile case [of Nirav Modi] and we had another high-profile case at the time and until they [India] saw action and movement on those, guess what, they had some leverage over us, which was terribly frustrating,” she said.

According to PTI, Modi is wanted in connection with three sets of criminal proceedings 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 case concerning alleged interference with evidence and witnesses in the CBI proceedings.

“[Nirav] Modi should be in prison… in India and serving his time there, having gone through a legal process, which is exactly what UK extradition laws and treaties are about,” Patel told the newspaper.

“It’s a flagrant abuse of our system. I mean, that’s the only way to describe this. It really is. And you know, it’s an insult to British taxpayers as well,” she said.

PTI reported that the delays to Modi’s extradition involved several High Court appeals on human rights grounds as well as a parallel, confidential political asylum claim. After the reported denial of asylum, the jeweller attempted to reopen his extradition case, but the High Court in England turned down that bid in March this year.

(With inputs from PTI)