As the prospect of getting deported to India gets stronger for the fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, the UK court came down heavily on the Congress party’s Abhay Thipsay. Thipsay is a retired High Court judge who gave testimony in favour of Modi in the court.
Thipsay “never disclosed his party-political affiliation” or “any potential conflict of interests”, the court observed, while making its remarks on Thipsay’s testimony.
UK court, which permitted extradition of Nirav Modi, is scathing against Congress party's Abhay Thipsay, former HC judge.
In giving testimony in favour of Nirav Modi, Thipsay "never disclosed his party-political affiliation" or "any potential conflict of interests".
Wow. pic.twitter.com/AzqpusflF9
— Kartikeya Tanna (@KartikeyaTanna) February 25, 2021
Nirav Modi on Thursday (25 February) lost his legal battle against his extradition to India, as the UK court ruled that Nirav Modi can be extradited to India to face a criminal trial.
Modi has been fighting a nearly two-year-long legal battle to stop his extradition to India, where he is accused of fraud and money laundering amounting to nearly ₹ 14,000-crore.
During the extradition proceedings, Abhay Thipsay, a retired judge turned Congress leader and a close confidante of senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, gave his testimony to the court via video link. He told the Court that the charges levelled against Nirav Modi — which include criminal conspiracy, cheating and dishonestly inducting delivery of property — would not stand scrutiny under Indian law.
Thipsay, who testified via video link, claimed that under Indian law, some of the police statements in the case against Nirav Modi, as well as the definition of deception, would be “inadmissible”.
Abhay Thipsay, who started his career in judicial service in 1987, served as a judge in the Bombay and Allahabad high courts. During his career, Thispay presided over several high-profile cases including the Sohrabuddin encounter case and Best Bakery case. He joined the Congress party in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
He was presented as a character witness appearing on behalf of Nirav Modi, who has challenged the Indian government’s request for him to be extradited back to India from the UK.
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