New Delhi: Officials in Dominica claimed today that the proceedings against fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi over his ‘illegal entry’ into the island nation have been “discontinued.”
Choksi, who is wanted by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a fraud involving the Punjab National Bank (PNB), went missing from Antigua on May 23 last year and inexplicably reappeared in Dominica.
He returned to Antigua in July of last year after the Dominica High Court granted him medical bail.
Choksi had fought the ‘illegal entrance’ charge, claiming that he was kidnapped from Jolly Harbour in Antigua on May 23 by cops dressed in Antiguan and Indian garb and taken to Dominica on a boat.
He has lived in Antigua as a citizen since 2018.
For allegedly cheating the Industrial Finance Corporation of India, the CBI recently filed a new case against the fugitive diamantaire and his company Gitanjali Gems (IFCI).
Choksi and his nephew, Nirav Modi, are accused of defrauding the PNB of Rs 13,500 crore by paying its personnel at the Brady House branch in Mumbai with Lines of Undertaking (LoUs) and foreign letters of credit (FLCs).
Choksi obtained citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda through the Citizenship by Investment Program in 2017 before fleeing India in the first week of January 2018, whilst Nirav Modi is imprisoned in a London prison after being denied bail on many occasions and is fighting extradition to India.
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