India pushes for Mehul Choksi’s extradition after arrest in Belgium

Absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi has been arrested in Belgium following an extradition request by Indian probe agencies for his involvement in the Rs 13000 crore Punjab National Bank PNB bank loan ldquofraudrdquo case official sources said on Monday The action was taken on Saturday based on an extradition request moved by the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI and the Enforcement Directorate EDChoksi 65 was located in Belgium last year when he went there on the grounds of getting medical treatment At least two openended arrest warrants issued by a special court in Mumbai in 2018 and 2021 have been shared by the Indian agencies with their Belgian counterparts as part of the extradition request the sources saidFormal paperwork is being done following the arrestdetention Choksi may seek bail on health grounds they said Choksirsquos lawyer Vijay Agarwal said his client was taken into custody by the Belgian Police on Saturday April 12 ldquoAt the moment he is in prison and there Belgium the procedure is not to apply for bail but file an appealrdquo Agarwal told reporters He said the ldquoobviousrdquo grounds for the appeal would be that Choksi is ldquonot a flight risk is extremely sick and undergoing treatment for cancerrdquoCBI caseChoksi Nirav Modi their family members and employees bank officials and others were booked by the CBI and the ED in 2018 for perpetrating the alleged loan fraud at the Brady House branch of the PNB in MumbaiIt was alleged that Choksi his firm Gitanjali Gems and others ldquocommitted the offence of cheating against PNB 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 bankrdquo The CBI has filed at least two charge sheets against him in this case while the ED has filed three such prosecution complaintsMatter of pride MeghwalUnion Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said the arrest of Choksi in Belgium is a victory of Indian diplomacy under the Modi government ldquoIt is a matter of pride for Indiardquo he told reporters The arrest became possible due to the successful diplomacy of the government under the leadership of Narendra Modi he said He however did not directly comment on whether the Indian government has started efforts to bring Choksi back to IndialsquoZero tolerancersquoUnion Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary asserted that the Modi government has ldquozero tolerancerdquo towards fugitives like Choksi and corruption and said the Centre will work to bring him back soon ldquoThe government will work towards bringing him back soonrdquo he said ldquoThere is a zero tolerance policy in the Modi government towards such fugitives and corruptionrdquo the minister saidA diplomatic victoryForeign Affairs Expert Robinder Sachdev said that the arrest is a diplomatic win more so because a year back the government had struck Choksirsquos name off its Red Corner Notice Alert ldquoCertainly there is a very welcome development that Mehul Choksi has been arrested provisionally by the Belgian authorities on Indiarsquos request It is a diplomatic victoryrdquo he saidExtradition not easy WhistleblowerAfter Choksirsquos arrest PNB scam whistleblower Hariprasad SV said that it will be very difficult for India to get Choksi back home as he will employ the best lawyers in Europe to avoid the process He recalled the time when Choksi succeeded in evading the process when he was caught in Dominica ldquoExtradition is not an easy task Choksirsquos wallet is full and he will employ the best lawyers in Europe to avoid the process like what Vijay Maliya has been doing I donrsquot think it is going to be easy for India to get him backrdquo he saidldquoWhen he was caught in Antigua Dominica and other islands he could manage to get out of it because he has a fleet of lawyers But I wish and hope that this time the Indian government will succeedrdquo Hariprasad said He also mentioned that at least 100 franchises were cheated by Choksi and most of them filed cases in different cities in IndiaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoeveratOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params