Crime Today News
Fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi has been arrested in Belgium after India made an extradition request in connection with the Rs 13,000-crore Punjab National Bank fraud case, ANI reported on Monday.
Choksi, who is wanted by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate in India, was reportedly taken into custody on Saturday.
His lawyer Vijay Aggarwal on Monday confirmed his arrest. “We will be starting the process of filing an appeal against this, and then, as a process of appeal, we will be requesting that he be pulled out of prison,” he told ANI. “The major ground for the plea is his ill health and that he is undergoing cancer treatment.”
Choksi is one of the prime accused, along with his nephew Nirav Modi, in the PNB fraud case.
The fraud came to light in February 2018 when the bank informed the stock exchange BSE that it had detected “fraudulent and unauthorised transactions” worth Rs 11,380 crore at a branch in South Mumbai.
A few officials of the public sector bank had allegedly issued fraudulent Letters of Undertaking to Modi’s companies, resulting in the loss of Rs 6,097.6 crore to PNB.
Choksi had also defaulted on another loan he had taken from ICICI Bank.
He had fled India for Antigua and Barbuda in January 2018, a few weeks before the fraud came to light and secured the citizenship of the Caribbean country. Choksi has been living in Belgium after obtaining a residency card, according to The Indian Express.
The Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate had requested the Belgian authorities to initiate his extradition to India after the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol, withdrew its Red Corner Notice against the fugitive businessman in December 2023, reported PTI.
The notice is the highest form of alert issued by the intergovernmental organisation to law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person while extradition, surrender or similar legal actions are pending.
The withdrawal of the notice meant that Choksi could freely travel to any country except India.
In July 2021, Choksi alleged that he had been abducted from his house in Antigua and Barbuda by Indian agencies. The fugitive businessman had gone missing on May 23, 2021, from Antigua and Barbuda, and was detained in Dominica the next day.
After 51 days in prison, Choksi was given bail by the Dominica High Court on medical grounds. In May, illegal entry charges against him were dropped.
Choksi has claimed that he cannot be declared a fugitive in India as he had left the country before a first information report was filed against him.
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