Fugitive Choksi Arrested "on way to Cuba"
May 27, 21
(IDEX Online) - Fugitive diamond trader Mehul Choksi was arrested yesterday in Dominica, three days after he disappeared from Antigua, about 120 miles away by sea.
There is media speculation that after arriving on the tiny island by boat he was intending to travel by sea to Cuba, 1,150 miles away.
He is wanted in his home country of India, where he and nephew Nirav Modi are accused of defrauding the Punjab National Bank out of $1.85bn.
In 2018, Choksi, 62, (pictured) moved from India to Antigua and and Barbuda, which offers a citizenship by investment program.
India is now expected to use diplomatic channels in an attempt to have him deported.
But Chokis's lawyer Vijay Agarwal says his client is no longer a citizen of India and he cannot be deported there.
Antigua's prime minister Gaston Browne said Choksi had "made a monumental error by skipping the island".
He told the Antigua News Room website: "He needs to return to India where he can face the criminal charges levelled against him."
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