Economic Times has reported that retired Supreme Court judge Markandey Katu will depose in a UK court in favour of fugitive Billionaire Nirav Modi. The retired judge and chairman of the Press Council of India is to speak in Nirav Modi’s favour, to support his claims against his extradition to India.
Speaking to Economic Times, Justice Katju has reportedly even confirmed that he will be deposing in favour of Nirav Modi as a witness before a UK court tomorrow, on September 11, via video conferencing.
Katju has stated that he will not be commenting on the merit of the case and will only say that Nirav Modi will not get justice in India. He added that he does not support the Indian government’s plea seeking the extradition of Nirav Modi to India.
Katju supports Nirav Modi, says he is being targeted to hide govt’s failure
Katju further stated that he has already given a written statement to the court. He has reportedly written that Nirav Modi is unlikely to get a free and fair trial in India as he has already been ‘convicted’ by the Indian media.
He further stated that Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, in one of his statements, had referred to Nirav Modi as a criminal. “How can a law minister declare someone as a criminal? Only a court of law can do that”, Katju stated.
As per the ET report, Katju has told that the Indian judiciary is subservient to the Modi government. He further added that the Indian media has already made the atmosphere very hostile against Nirav Modi and he will be made a ‘scapegoat’ to hide the failures of the government to check the falling economy.
Katju will appear as Nirav Modi’s witness on Friday, September 11. He will also be questioned by the Crown Prosecution Service.
Nirav Modi is the prime accused in the 2 billion USD PNB scam
Nirav Modi is the prime accused in the USD 2 billion PNB scam. He had fled India after the PNB scam was brought to the light. He had left the country and fled just when PNB had reported a massive 11,300 crore loan fraud by Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi.
After evading detection for over a year, he was finally arrested in London on March 20 last year. He had been living in an ultra-luxury apartment in West London. His bail petitions have been repeatedly denied and he has been in UK jail since.
The other main accused Mehul Choksi has taken up the citizenship of Antigua and has been living there. The Indian government is trying for his extradition too. Both Nirav Modi and Choksi’s properties, houses, luxury items and business premises, worth thousands of crores, have been attached by the ED in India.
In June, the ED had recovered several consignments of diamond and luxury pearl jewellery by the duo in Hong Kong and had brought back over 108 consignments of various entities, totalling over Rs 1300 crores.
