Mehul Choksi is wanted in India for allegedly swindling ₹ 13,500 crore from PNB.

New Delhi:

The High Court of Dominica has put a stay on the repatriation of fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi — wanted in connection with the PNB loan fraud case — who was arrested in the Caribbean island nation while trying to flee to Cuba from Antigua, another island nation where he had been since 2018. Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne, according to a media report, has asked Dominica to sent back to India directly but this has been contested by Choksi’s lawyers who claim that the wanted businessman cannot be sent to India as he is is no longer a citizen of the country.

“This order is to be served immediately on the Defendants by email and fax and in person, and the Head of Immigration at the Douglas Charles Airport by email and fax,” read the Court order.

The next hearing in the matter on May 28 at 9 am local time.

Choksi’s legal team in Dominica had filed a habeas corpus petition after they were allegedly not given access to him, local media reported.

They also claimed that “marks of torture” have been reported on the Choksi’s body.

“I noticed that he was severely beaten, his eyes were swollen and had several burnt marks on his body. He reported to me that he was abducted at Jolly Harbour in Antigua and brought to Dominica by persons whom he believed to be Indian and Antiguan police on a vessel he described to be about 60-70 feet in length,” Wayne Marsh, Choksi’s lawyer in Dominica, was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Meanwhile, sources in the Indian government have reiterated that the government will use diplomatic channels to bring back the fugitive jeweler from Dominica.

Mehul Choksi was caught when he was allegedly trying to escape to Cuba from Antigua, where he had been living since 2018 after leaving India. He reportedly left Antigua and took a boat to neighbouring Dominica. With an Interpol lookout circular against him, he was caught by the police from a beach in Dominica.

The diamond jeweler, along with his nephew Nirav Modi, is wanted in India for allegedly siphoning off Rs 13,500 crore of public money from the state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) using fake documents. Nirav Modi, jailed in London, is contesting his extradition to India.