Mehul Choksi's alleged kidnapping becomes political issue in Caribbean

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jun 1, 2021

As speculation that fugitive jewellery tycoon Mehul Choksi was kidnapped spreads, politicians in India, Antigua, and Dominica are being accused of involvement which they deny. 

Members of the opposition party in Dominica, where Mehul Choksi is currently in hospital after being admitted with an unnamed health complaint, are accusing the island’s police, immigration, and customs officials of violating the law in their handling of the jeweller, TNN reported. Choksi, who was the promoter of Gitanjali Gems and is accused of fraud at the Punjab National Bank, arrived in Dominica by boat from Antigua and was subsequently detained. His Indian legal counsel believes that he was taken there against his will.  
 
“The presence of Indian-born Mehul Choksi in Dominica following allegations that he was kidnapped in Antigua, beaten, ferried to Dominica and taken into the country against his will, highlights once again the extent to which departments of government are involved in organised crime under the influence and/or direction of the regime of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit,” leader of the opposition in the Dominica’s House of Assembly Lennox Linton told the Times of India on May 31.

Choksi arrived in Dominica without a passport and was not declared when the yacht he traveled on entered Dominica, TNN reported. Antigua and Barbuda prime minister Gaston Browne denied any involvement in the alleged kidnapping in an interview on Monday, ET Bureau reported.