New Delhi: Fugitive diamond merchant Mehul Choksi, wanted in a Rs 13,000 crore bank fraud, has been removed from Interpol’s Red Notice database. He had been on the list since December 2018.
In a setback to the Indian probe agencies, which have been trying to deport him to India, Interpol, in its statement, said it found substance in choksi’s allegations that India is trying to “abduct” him. The removal of the Red Notice means Choksi can travel around the world freely without any fear of being arrested by law enforcement agencies.
“There is a credible possibility that the applicant’s abduction from Antigua to Dominica had the ultimate purpose of deporting the applicant to India,” the Interpol order said, according to Hindustan Times. It also added that Choksi may face the risk of “not receiving a fair trial or treatment if returned to India”.
Choksi had challenged the Red Notice against him before a five-member Interpol committee’s court known as the Commission for Control of Files, PTI reported. The Notice was issued against him in 2018, nearly 10 months after he fled from India in January that year to take refuge in Antigua and Barbuda, where he had taken citizenship,
A Red Notice is the highest form of an alert issued by the 195 members of Interpol to law enforcement agencies worldwide to find and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.
Not only the removal of the Red Notice against Choksi but the wording in Interpol’s ruling – that there is a “credible possibility” that he may have been “abducted” in May 2021 by Indian authorities or at their behest to Dominica from Antigua and Barbuda, where he is now a citizen – is of concern to India.
Speaking of India’s arguments before the Interpol committee, an official told HT, “We (India) vehemently contested his charges in the Interpol and conveyed that if his red notice is removed, he may flee from Antigua, where extradition proceedings are at a crucial stage. Also, he is wanted in multiple cases,” said an officer who didn’t want to be named.
Another official told the newspaper that “Interpol red notice removal doesn’t affect our investigations or our extradition request in Antigua”.
The CBI has charge-sheeted both Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi separately in the bank fraud. According to CBI, Choksi swindled Rs 7,080.86 crore in one of the biggest banking scams ever recorded in India’s history, and he is also accused of a loan default of over Rs 5,000 crore. On the other hand, CBI alleges that Nirav Modi siphoned off another Rs 6,000 crore.
Choksi’s ‘abduction’
In a dramatic turn of events in May 2021, Choksi disappeared from his sanctuary in Antigua and Barbuda to mysteriously appear in neighbouring Dominica. He was detained for illegal entry. As the news of his arrival in Dominica emerged, India hurriedly sent an official team to nab him. However, Choksi moved a habeas corpus petition before the Dominican high court. He got relief from the court after having spent 51 days in jail in Dominica. He secured bail in July 2021. Choksi’s swift legal moves also prevented him from being deported by Indian authorities. The court let him go to Antigua and Barbuda to seek medical help and ordered him to be present in Dominica to face trial after receiving a fitness certificate from doctors.
Choksi has been alleging for long that Indian authorities have been trying to kidnap him. A report by Antigua Police also revealed that there is a “plethora of real and circumstantial evidence makes it clear that a case of kidnapping with broad collusion among multiple conspirators exists”.
The report named five suspects and identified two of them. It said “at the top of the list of suspects” were an Indian-origin man and a Hungarian woman. The 19-page Antigua Police report dated June 25, 2021, confirms the claims made by Choksi and his wife at the time of Choksi’s disappearance from Antigua on May 25, 2021. The report had been kept under wraps for 11 months.
As for an earlier report by The Wire, questions that remain unanswered are the motive behind the alleged abduction and whether the abductors were acting on their own or had a bigger entity behind them. Choksi has alleged, according to the Antigua Observer, that the persons who abducted him were “operatives of the government of India,” a charge New Delhi rejects.
