PNB scam: ‘Choksi Indian citizen, misleading Dominican courts’, says CBI

Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: India informed the Dominican courts on Monday that fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi, an Indian citizen accused in the Rs.13,500 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, is ‘misleading’ the courts to stall his deportation to India.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have formed a joint strategy to counter his arguments and bring Choksi back to the country to face justice. They have filed separate affidavits in the Dominican courts. If admitted, former Solicitor-General of India Harish Salve will argue the case.

While the CBI is expected to highlight Choksi’s role in the PNB scam, the MEA will refute his claim of giving up his Indian citizenship. The central agency will focus on establishing his criminal culpability, his fugitive status, pending warrants against him, and Interpol’s Red Notice, among other things.

In its affidavit, the CBI said that, according to the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), Choksi cannot be tried in absentia, and his presence in India is necessary.

The affidavit was filed for the magistrate’s court hearing scheduled for 6.30 PM, IST, on Monday (June 14). The CBI asserted that Choksi was “spreading lies to mislead the court”, according to media reports.

India also seeks to establish that Choksi was wanted in a case of cheating the public sector bank along with nephew Nirav Modi, who is fighting his own extradition from the UK.

The Dominican court will resume its hearing on Choksi’s “illegal” entry into the Caribbean Island of Dominica, from Antigua and Barbuda whose citizenship he acquired in 2017. While the prosecution claims that Choksi was “sneaking in”, his lawyers have said he was “kidnapped” into Dominica. The case of his illegal entry may impact his claims in the Dominican High Court, where his habeas corpus plea challenging the alleged unlawful detention is pending.

On June 12, the Dominican High Court had concluded that he was a “flight risk”, had no ties with Dominica, and denied bail to Choksi in the case of illegal entry into the island nation, after his disappearance from Antigua and Barbuda where he has lived since 2018.

Meanwhile, Choksi’s lawyer in London, Michael Polak, filed a complaint with Scotland Yard seeking a probe into the alleged abduction and torture of his client. Polak said Choksi was removed from Antigua and Barbuda, where as a citizen he enjoys rights to approach the British Privy Council as last resort in cases on his citizenship and extradition, to Dominica where these rights are not available to him.

“The aim to remove him from Antigua to Dominica was to diminish his protection under the law. Choksi was ongoing proceedings in Antigua in regards to attempts by the prime minister to remove his citizenship, the only citizenship that he possesses, and to extradite him to India,” he had said.