Nirav Modi approaches Bombay High Court to stop auction of 68 paintings

Nirav Modi's firm, Camelot Enterprises, has approached Bombay High Court to stop the auction of 68 paintings. The Income Tax Department was planning to auction 68 art pieces to recover aproximately Rs 97 crore. 

The matter will be heard before the court on March 28. 

Earlier, the Westminster court had rejected the bail plea of fugitive celebrity jeweller Nirav Modi.

The 48-year-old was arrested by Scotland Yard last week and presented before District Judge Marie Mallon at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London . The judge remanded him in custody till March 29 after which he was transferred to Her Majesty's Prison (HMP) Wandsworth in south-west London. While he would hope to be held in a separate cell, the overcrowding pressures of the jail may mean him sharing a prison cell with any of its around 1,430 male prisoners.

Modi, one of India's richest men accustomed to the high-life and celebrity circles around the world, will be faced with some harsh conditions at the prison amid some dubious inmates. During the most recent inspection carried out in February-March 2018, the Victorian-era jail was found by UK Chief Inspector of Prisons Peter Clarke to be "one of the most overcrowded in England and Wales" and filled with many men with drug or mental health problems, receiving poor training and education.