Antigua and Barbuda assured Indian authorities it will extradite jeweller Mehul Choksi

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Sep 28, 2018

Raveesh Kumar, an External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson, has announced that the authorities of Antigua and Barbuda have agreed to extradite jeweller Mehul Choksi to India as soon as legal formalities conclude.

Antigua’s Foreign Minister Chet Greene met with Sushma Swaraj, India’s External Affairs Minister, on September 26 on the sidelines of a United Nations General Assembly meeting, as reported by the Economic Times. Greene assured that the country’s prime minister, Gaston Alfonso Browne, and the government, were behind this decision and intend to fully comply with India’s request to extradite Choksi from the country.

Kumar stated that Greene explained that internal legal formalities must be followed before Choksi can be extradited but as soon as these are concluded, this will be carried out. Choksi took citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda obtained through an investment in the country before news of the fraud he is implicated in broke in spring. Choksi has also stated through his lawyer that he does not intend to return to India as he fears a mob lynching for his accusation of fraud.

Choksi has been summoned to court along with his nephew, the jeweller Nirav Modi, to answer to allegations of defrauding the Punjab National Bank (PNB) out of over Rs 13,500 crore ($2 billion) in one of the biggest alleged frauds in India’s banking history.