Vijay Aggarwal: High-Profile Defence Lawyer for Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi Now Faces Multiple Sexual Assault Charges in London — A Catalogue of Allegations and National Disgrace

Vijay Aggarwal, the 57-year-old Delhi criminal defence lawyer who once stood as counsel for two of India’s most notorious economic fugitives, is today remanded in a British prison. On 11 August 2026 he was arrested at a luxury serviced townhouse at 29 Brick Street in Mayfair. Two days later, at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, he was charged with four counts of sexual assault under Section 3 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. His personal assistant, Manpreet Kaur, faces two counts of intentionally encouraging or assisting those offences. Both remain in custody. Their next hearing is fixed for 10 September 2026 at Southwark Crown Court for a plea and trial preparation hearing.

These charges are the culmination of a sequence that began months earlier. They expose a man who built his reputation defending the powerful and the accused in India’s biggest financial scandals, only to find himself formally accused of using deception to bring women into a private Mayfair residence where sexual assaults are alleged to have occurred. The contrast is absolute, and the damage is not confined to one individual.

The Professional Record: Defence Counsel for Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Other High-Profile Accused

Aggarwal’s career has been defined by high-stakes corporate crime and financial-fraud litigation. He is most prominently known as the long-time counsel for Mehul Choksi. Court records show him appearing as Choksi’s advocate before the Bombay High Court. After Belgian authorities arrested Choksi in April 2025 on an Indian extradition request, Aggarwal continued to represent him in the ongoing extradition proceedings in Antwerp. Choksi, uncle of Nirav Modi, left India in January 2018, obtained Antigua and Barbuda citizenship, and faces allegations, along with others, of involvement in the Punjab National Bank fraud of approximately ₹13,500 crore; he denies the charges.

In 2018, when the Punjab National Bank fraud first became public, Aggarwal was reported as having spoken publicly in the capacity of lawyer for Nirav Modi. He has also represented accused persons in the 2G spectrum case, including Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa. Beyond these named matters, reporting consistently describes him as a specialist in high-profile corporate crime and financial-fraud cases — a lawyer trusted by individuals facing multi-thousand-crore allegations and comfortable operating across jurisdictions while arguing due process, human rights and medical grounds against extradition.

This is the professional identity he cultivated. It is the same identity now colliding with formal criminal charges that allege the calculated use of a false job advertisement to lure women into a controlled private space.

How the London Episode Began: Landlord Complaint, Immigration Scrutiny and Cash Claims

The matter did not begin with the sexual-assault reports. According to multiple accounts, it started with a complaint lodged by the landlord of the Mayfair property in May 2026. British immigration authorities then examined Aggarwal’s activities in the United Kingdom. The circulating allegation at that stage was that he had been undertaking professional work without the required work permit and may have breached other immigration regulations.

During the subsequent inspection of the premises, reports claimed that a significant quantity of cash was discovered. Three or four junior lawyers associated with him were said to have been present. Some accounts stated that Aggarwal was detained by immigration authorities for approximately three days. No official document from the UK Home Office, Border Force, Metropolitan Police or any British court has been made public confirming the precise amount, ownership or source of any cash.

Family members and associates responded through ANI with categorical denials. A person close to Aggarwal stated: “There is nothing on record or in our knowledge to establish any alleged recovery of money from Aggarwal or his involvement with any such funds.” They condemned the portrayal of the matter as money-related and insisted that reporting rest only on verified information. Aggarwal himself offered no public comment at that stage.

Those denials address the cash claims. They do not erase what followed. On 11 August 2026 the Metropolitan Police arrested Aggarwal and Manpreet Kaur at the same Mayfair address after receiving reports of sexual assaults. Two other individuals — a 23-year-old man and a 43-year-old woman — were also arrested that day and later released on bail. The formal charges preferred two days later had nothing to do with immigration technicalities. They concerned sexual assault and the assistance of sexual assault.

The Full Catalogue of Allegations Now Before the British Courts

The charges laid at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 13 August 2026 are precise:

• Vijay Aggarwal faces four counts of sexual assault under Section 3 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which covers intentional sexual touching without consent and without reasonable belief in consent. Three counts relate to an alleged incident involving one woman on 9 August 2026 at the Mayfair property. One count relates to an alleged incident involving a second woman on 26 May 2026 at the same address. The maximum sentence for each count is ten years.
• Manpreet Kaur, described as his personal assistant and aged 41, faces two counts of intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of a sexual assault offence, corresponding to the May and August incidents. The prosecution case is that she introduced the two women to Aggarwal and invited them to the address after posting a false job advertisement.

One earlier News18 report claimed that seven women had come forward with complaints of molestation and that the assistant had been charged as an accomplice. The formal court charges, however, centre on two complainants and the four-plus-two counts detailed above. That discrepancy has not been publicly reconciled.

The property itself is a four-storey, five-bedroom serviced townhouse of approximately 4,000 square feet, complete with maid service and daily breakfast hamper, available at roughly £2,000 (around ₹2.6 lakh) a night. It is a controlled, high-status environment. When reached through an alleged false job advertisement, it becomes, on the prosecution case, an instrument of deception and isolation. The two women who reported the assaults are receiving specialist support; British law protects their identities. Both Aggarwal and Kaur were remanded in custody. No conviction has yet been recorded. The charges remain allegations that must be proved in court.

Professional Prestige Collides with Alleged Predation

A lawyer who has represented Nirav Modi in the early stages of the Punjab National Bank fraud scandal, who has stood as counsel for Mehul Choksi before the Bombay High Court and in the Belgium extradition proceedings, and who has appeared for accused persons including Shahid Balwa in the 2G spectrum case, is now formally accused of deploying a false employment lure to bring women into a Mayfair townhouse where sexual assaults are alleged to have taken place. That is not a minor professional embarrassment. It is an alleged system of predation that inverts every claim of integrity the legal profession requires.

The earlier immigration and cash narrative, whether accurate or not, cannot obscure the formal charges that a British court has already found serious enough to refuse bail. The sequence that began with a landlord’s complaint in May, moved through an immigration inspection and contested cash claims, and culminated in four counts of sexual assault and two counts of assisting those offences is now a matter of public record.

The National Shame Such People Inflict

Individuals of this profile do not merely soil their own reputation. They bring shame to the entire country they belong to. Every time a high-profile Indian lawyer who has represented figures such as Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi is charged abroad with multiple counts of sexual assault allegedly facilitated by false job advertisements, the story does not remain private. It becomes an international headline that associates India with the abuse of power, the exploitation of women, and the corruption of professional status. Foreign observers do not parse the presumption of innocence with the same care that domestic defenders sometimes demand. They see a pattern of privilege, deception and alleged sexual offending. The result is straightforward and corrosive: national shame.

Aggarwal is entitled to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence. That entitlement does not require the public to treat the charges as trivial or to pretend that a man who spent years arguing legal technicalities for accused multi-thousand-crore offenders is somehow insulated from scrutiny when he himself faces formal allegations of this gravity. The British courts will test the evidence. Until a verdict is reached, the charges stand as a devastating formal accusation. They expose the gap between the polished professional image cultivated through high-profile defence work and the alleged reality of private conduct. They also expose a broader failure: the willingness of some to treat national reputation as expendable when one of their own is accused. Such people do not only destroy their own standing. They drag the name of the country into the same dock. That is the true measure of the damage, and it cannot be minimised.