Mehul Choksi details alleged kidnapping from Antigua

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jun 8, 2021

Fugitive jewellery tycoon Mehul Choksi has made a complaint to the Antiguan Police Commissioner claiming that he was attacked and kidnapped, then brought to Dominica against his will. 

 
As Choksi remains in custody in Dominica after being accused of illegally entering the island, he has told Antiguan authorities that a group of eight to ten men had beat him and forced him onto a boat after he was allegedly lured to the location of the incident, Asian News International reported. Choksi was taken from jail to a hospital in Dominica for an unspecified health complaint and photos have emerged of Choksi with visible bruising and other injuries. 
 
Choksi is accused along with his nephew and fellow jewellery tycoon Nirav Modi of one of India’s largest-scale frauds at the Punjab National Bank. Indian authorities were working with Antiguan authorities to extradite him to India to stand trial but the process was complicated by the fact that Choksi took Antiguan citizenship before news of the fraud case was made public. 

“I was told that I was brought to this location to give an interview to a high-ranking ‘Indian politician’,” said Choksi in his police complaint a out his transportation to Dominica, ANI reported. “He also told me that my citizenship would be ‘fixed’ in Dominica and that I would soon be repatriated to India.”
 
Choksi details being beaten, tasered, and threatened with a knife. He also alleges that his friend Barbara Jabarica, who he was going to meet when the event occurred, indicated by her behaviour that she was aware of and part of the plan to capture him. Antiguan and Indian authorities have denied any involvement in Choksi’s alleged kidnapping and Choksi’s legal team are attempting to block any attempts to extradite him directly from Dominica to India.