TOI correspondent from London: Fugitive jeweller Nirav Modi appeared at the high court here on Tuesday in a bid to get the court to “reopen” its decision to dismiss his appeal against extradition to India, claiming he had compelling new evidence.Nirav’s barrister, Edward Fitzgerald, said the HC judgment in the case of defence middleman Sanjay Bhandari, in Feb 2025, which said he was at real risk of torture by the investigating agencies in India, and thus rejected his extradition on human rights grounds, was the “supervening event”. Nirav was also at risk of torture as he too would be interrogated by investigating agencies in India if extradited, Fitzgerald said. Extradition cases may only be reopened if significant new evidence emerges.Three CBI officers, who flew over for the hearing, watched the proceedings, as did Nirav, who appeared via video link from Pentonville prison.In the Bhandari case, the judges had ruled that the use of torture to obtain confessions in India was “commonplace and endemic”.Fitzgerald claimed the investigating agencies in India had a “predisposition to torture”.In a complete reverse of arguments used in the Vijay Mallya extradition case, when the CBI was referred to as a “caged parrot”, Fitzgerald, in this case, relying on evidence from Nirav’s former counsel in India, Ashul Agarwal, said, “The central govt cannot tell the CBI, ED and other independent agencies whether to interrogate or not — they are not parrots in cages like the Supreme Court said.”Fitzgerald also relied on evidence from Justice Verma, a retired Supreme Court judge, who said that Delhi “cannot provide enforceable assurances on behalf of these agencies”.Helen Malcolm KC, representing India, said New Delhi had provided a sovereign assurance that neither the CBI nor ED nor any other investigating agency would interrogate Nirav once extradited. She said the documentary evidence against him was good enough and this was another example of Nirav “manipulating the judicial process”, citing how he had once threatened to kill witnesses and destroyed evidence.Lord Justice Stuart-Smith said if the sovereign assurance was breached the “remedy would be a breakdown of trust between UK and India”, a recipe for diplomatic mayhem.“When it comes to interrogation and torture, India routinely disregards the rule of law,” Fitzgerald alleged. “The interior ministry cannot stop this endemic continuing as there is effective monitoring,” Fitzgerald added. “The prison officers at Arthur Road Jail dare not stand up to the CBI.”Judgment was reserved.

India’s men’s and women’s hockey teams have learned their group-stage opponents for the upcoming FIH Hockey World Cup, with both sides placed in Pool D of their respective categories for the tournament to be co-hosted by the Netherlands and Belgium later this year.The Indian men’s team has been grouped with Pakistan, England and Wales. The draw ceremony took place at the Wagener Stadium in Amsterdam on Tuesday.The Indian women’s team will face China, England and South Africa in their group. The tournament is scheduled to be held from August 15 to 30.According to the International Hockey Federation, both Indian teams will play their matches in the Netherlands. The full match schedule is expected to be released on Wednesday.Reigning men’s champions Germany, who won their third World Cup title in 2023 in Bhubaneswar by beating Belgium, have been placed in Pool B along with Belgium, France and Malaysia.“The draw was done by hockey legends Naomie van As, Barbara Neelen and Teun de Nooijer, as well as DJ La Fuente, who was announced as Dutch Ambassador for the World Cup during the ceremony,” the FIH said in a release.The Pools:Men:Pool A: Netherlands, Argentina, New Zealand, Japan (playing in the Netherlands)Pool B: Belgium, Germany, France, Malaysia (playing in Belgium)Pool C: Australia, Spain, Ireland, South Africa (playing in Belgium)Pool D: England, India, Pakistan, Wales (playing in the Netherlands)Women:Pool A: Netherlands, Australia, Chile, Japan (playing in the Netherlands)Pool B: Argentina, Germany, USA, Scotland (playing in Belgium)Pool C: Belgium, Spain, New Zealand, Ireland (playing in Belgium)Pool D: China, England, India, South Africa (playing in the Netherlands).

Mumbai: Even as the BMC pushes ahead with its ambitious Rs 12,000-crore plan to turn the city pothole-free, it is already lining up the next phase of road concretisation.Civic sources said the next phase of works is approximately pegged at an additional Rs 2,500 crore, triggering sharp political pushback over timing and execution.Officials said estimates for the new phase are still being worked out, but the expansion comes at a time when parts of the ongoing works are still incomplete. The mega project, initiated under directions from former chief minister and existing deputy CM Eknath Shinde, aims to replace Mumbai’s entire 2,050-km road network of asphalt and paver blocks with durable concrete surfaces. “We have been asked to work on preparing the estimates; however, none of these works will begin so soon as we are still in the process of identifying the roads that need to be concretised,” said a civic official.So far, the project has been rolled out in two phases. Phase I saw 698 roads (324km) being taken up in Jan 2023, while Phase II proposes 1,420 roads spanning 377km. Civic officials maintain all works are on track for completion before next monsoon.On the ground, however, the picture is more complicated. Opposition leaders argue that the rush to expand the project is premature and risks compounding existing coordination failures. Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh flagged repeated instances of freshly concretised roads being dug up within days. “Inter-departmental clearances are not being properly coordinated. Roads are being concretised and then reopened for other works almost immediately,” he said, pointing to a recent case where a part of St Andrew’s Road outside Bandra Gymkhana in Bandra West was dug up once again, much to the dismay of local residents. This road was recently concretised and a portion was dug up again for upgradation of the Chimbai pumping station, involving micro-tunnelling, and the dug-up section is meant for the construction of a chamber.Over 1,333km of roads have been concretised so far, including major arteries such as Aarey Road, Andheri-Kurla Link Road, Narayan Dabholkar Marg, and stretches connecting Navy Nagar to Shahid Bhagat Singh Marg.The project has also run into controversy over alleged irregularities in upcoming tenders. BJP party executive member Vivekanand Gupta, in a post on X, claimed that a Rs 3,200-crore tender for roads in western suburbs could favour a specific contractor, calling it a “big scam”.