Diamantaire Mehul Choksi located in Antigua with local passport

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jul 25, 2018

Mehul Choksi, the jewellery tycoon who is implicated in an Rs 13,400 crore ($2 billion) fraud at the Punjab National Bank (PNB), has now been located in Antigua after the county’s authorities notified India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) that he has taken a passport there.

After India’s Interpol issued a diffusion notice concerning Mehul Choksi, the ED was notified by Antiguan authorities that he was in the country and now has an Antiguan passport. The authorities reported that Choksi had arrived this month.

A non-bailable arrest warrant has been issued against Choksi by a special court in Mumbai. However, whilst Red Corner Notices have been successfully issued against Nirav Modi, the other main accused party in the fraud case, and Modi’s brother, the request to issue one against Choksi by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is still pending after being requested in June.

If the Red Corner Notice against Choksi is passed by the Lyon-based International Police Co-operation Agency, then member countries can arrest and extradite Choksi. However, Choksi himself has expressed on several occasions since his extradition was demanded that he does not wish to return to India as he fears that he could be lynched. Choksi left India in the first week of January, just over a week before news of the fraud scandal broke.