PNB Fraud-Accused Mehul Choksi Detained in Belgium on India's Extradition Request
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New Delhi: Absconding diamond jeweller Mehul Choksi was detained in Belgium on April 12, the news agency PTI reported early on April 14.
Choksi was held after an extradition request by Indian investigation agencies, the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation, over his alleged involvement in the Rs 13,000 crore Punjab National Bank bank loan fraud case.
Choksi is the uncle of billionaire diamantiare Nirav Modi who is also an accused in the 2018 loan fraud.
Reports have said that Choksi's wife is a Belgian citizen. He had been staying in Antigua and Barbuda, a country in the Caribbean, before moving to Belgium. In 2023, the Antigua and Barbuda high court had ruled that he cannot be removed from the country after Choksi filed a civil suit claiming that he was abducted from Antigua and Barbuda and taken to Dominica forcibly in a boat on May 23, 2021, allegedly by officials of India’s spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing.
On the basis on this petition, the Interpol had withdrawn its Red Notice against him, setting back the plans of Indian enforcement agencies to extradite him.
The ED has said that Choksi, his firm Gitanjali Gems and others "committed the offence of cheating against Punjab National Bank in connivance with certain bank officials by fraudulently getting the LOUs (letters of undertaking) issued and got the FLCs (foreign letter of credit) enhanced without following prescribed procedure and caused a wrongful loss to the bank."
Late last year, it had been reported that Gitanjali Gems was on top of the list of firms classified wilful defaulters by the Reserve Bank of India for failing to repay bank loans despite having the adequate means to.
A special court for hearing cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Mumbai last year remarked that people wanted in economic offence cases such as Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya and Mehul Choksi were able to flee India because of the failure of investigating agencies to arrest them in proper time.
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