Choksi Arrested in Antwerp, Fighting Extradition to India
April 20, 25
(IDEX Online) - Fugitive diamond trader Mehul Choksi has been arrested in Belgium, seven years after fleeing India as news broke of the $1.85bn Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud.
He is a prime suspect in the case, along with his nephew Nirav Modi (currently in a UK prison).
The authorities in India are now pushing to have Choksi extradited so he can stand trial.
But Choksi's legal team is expected to contest the move on medical grounds. Choksi, aged 65, has reportedly been undergoing treatment for cancer in Antwerp.
India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) claims Choksi and Gitanjali Gems - the 4,000-outlet jewelry retailer he ran - defrauded PNB.
Bank workers allegedly enhanced multiple FLCs (foreign letters of credit) allowing Gitanjali to borrow widely from foreign branches of Indian banks
Choksi's lawyer lawyer Vijay Aggarwal said the case against his client was "political" and that Choksi would be unable to bear the conditions in an Indian prison.
He also said he would be urging the court to release Choksi from custody in Belgium and allow him to oppose India's extradition request.
Choksi has spent much of the last seven years living on the Caribbean archipelago nation of Antigua and Barbuda, which has no extradition agreement with India and which offers citizenship for $100,000.
He was arrested on 12 April based on at least two open-ended non-bailable warrants issued by a special Mumbai court, dated May 2018 and June 2021. But attempts to extradite him will be long and complex.
In March 2023 Interpol lifted the red notice imposed in 2018 preventing Choksi from traveling freely.
File pic of Mehul Choksi in 2021.