Fugitive Mehul Choksi Missing In Antigua; May Be In Cuba, Say Sources

New Delhi:

Mehul Choksi – the 62-year-old fugitive diamantaire wished by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate in reference to Rs 14,000 crore PNB mortgage fraud and money-laundering case – has gone lacking within the Caribbean island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, to which he fled in 2018.

Mr Choksi’s lawyer, Vijay Aggarwal, confirmed to NDTV on Tuesday morning that his consumer is lacking and that his household is on the lookout for him. He additionally mentioned Antiguan police had launched a manhunt.

Sources throughout the CBI instructed NDTV it had not been formally knowledgeable that Mr Choksi is lacking, however it’s writing to the Antiguan embassy in India for affirmation and extra info.

Company sources additionally mentioned a Red Notice against Mr Choksi – issued by Interpol in 2018 – meant they are going to be alerted if he entered any immigration level anyplace on the planet.

In the meantime, intelligence sources, quoting native media in Antigua, say Mr Choksi may need shifted base to Cuba. “We’ve got received such stories (and) we’re ascertaining it,” a senior official instructed NDTV.

Like Antigua, Cuba has no extradition settlement with India.

The police, in accordance with information company PTI, started looking for Mr Choksi on Sunday.

“Police are investigating a Lacking Individual’s Report of 62-year-old Mehul Choksi of Jolly Harbour. Mehul was reported lacking Sunday, Could 23 at Johnson Level Police Station,” the assertion mentioned.

They’ve sought the general public’s assist in discovering Mr Choksi, whom they described as of “Indian descent, brown in complexion, 5 toes six inches in top, closely constructed with a balding hairline”.

“Anybody with info is requested to name the Johnson Level Police Station or the Legal Investigations Division (CID),” native media outfit Antiguan Newsroom appealed.

In response to information company ANI, Mr Choksi left his house at 5.15 pm Sunday (native time) to go for dinner at a restaurant within the southern a part of the island.

He was final seen in his automobile, which has been recovered. However there’s nonetheless no signal of him. Quite a few searches have been carried out to no avail, ANI mentioned, quoting an Antiguan police assertion.

Mehul Choksi is concerned in a long-running authorized battle to cease his extradition to India.

He at present holds Antiguan citizenship. Final 12 months Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne mentioned that citizenship can be revoked as soon as all of his authorized choices had been exhausted.

Mr Browne made it clear his nation – amongst many ‘tax havens’ within the Caribbean – won’t present “protected harbour for criminals, for many who are concerned in monetary crimes”.

“Choksi’s citizenship was processed, he received by way of. We do have recourse, the fact is his citizenship will be revoked and he will be deported to India,” the Antigua Observer reported Mr Browne as saying.

In March Mr Choksi’s lawyer countered media stories that mentioned citizenship had, in reality, been revoked by an Antiguan civil court docket. Mr Aggarwal mentioned Mehul Choksi remains an Antiguan citizen.

In an earlier interview with ANI Mr Choksi had protested his innocence and mentioned that the fees in opposition to him are false, baseless and motivated by political expediency.

Mr Choksi’s nephew, billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi, 50, can be wished in reference to the PNB rip-off case. Like his uncle Mr Modi fled India in 2018 and is at present in the UK.

Nirav Modi’s extradition to India was cleared by the British authorities final month. Nonetheless, Mr Modi can nonetheless problem that extradition order earlier than the UK Excessive Court docket.

That course of might take months and even years, as seen within the case of liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who went to court docket in opposition to his extradition order signed again in February 2019.

With enter from ANI, PTI