Priti Patel appalled as Nirav Modi remains in UK despite extradition order

London,UPDATED: Jul 26, 2026 17:58 IST

Former British home secretary Priti Patel has said she is "appalled and horrified" that fugitive jeweller Nirav Modi is still in the UK, despite signing his extradition order to India in April 2021 after a court established a prima facie case. Patel, now the shadow foreign secretary for the Conservative Party, said Indian authorities were "hugely angry" over Britain’s failure to extradite him.

The 55-year-old remains in a London prison in connection with the USD 2 billion Punjab Bank fraud and a money laundering case. He has exhausted his legal options in the UK and has also reportedly lost a final plea at the European Court of Human Rights in France, with his extradition seen as imminent.

Patel made the remarks on The Daily Telegraph podcast, in an episode due to be released next week. The newspaper’s four-part series, "The Diamond King", traces how it found 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 said. "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.

Patel said the case had complicated her work as home secretary between 2019 and 2022, saying 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.

Nirav Modi is wanted in India in three sets of criminal proceedings: the CBI case linked to the PNB fraud, the Enforcement Directorate case on the alleged laundering of the proceeds of that fraud, and a third case involving alleged interference with evidence and witnesses in the CBI proceedings. Patel told the newspaper, "[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." She added, "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." The delays in his extradition followed several High Court appeals on human rights grounds and a parallel confidential political asylum claim. After his asylum claim was reportedly rejected, Modi, who is lodged at Pentonville prison in north London, tried to reopen his extradition case, but that plea was also rejected by the High Court in England in March this year. Patel’s remarks underline her criticism of the long delay in sending Nirav Modi back to India, even after the extradition order and the failure of his legal challenges.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends