Bring back Mehul Choksi: India in touch with Dominica after Antigua advises deportation

A day after fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi was found after a three-day search in Dominica, sources have informed that the Indian government is in touch with both Antigua & Barbuda and the Dominican government over the matter. This comes after the Prime Minister of Antigua & Barbuda, Gaston Browne, told Republic that he had asked Dominica to deport Choksi directly back to India as a persona-non-grata.

Mehul Choksi to be deported to India directly?

It is pertinent to point out that Antigua & Barbadua PM Gaston Browne told Republic TV exclusively on Wednesday that he had directed Dominica to make Mehul Choksi persona non grata and have him deported directly to India. The phrase persona non grata means "an unwelcome person" and refers to a foreign person whose entering or staying in a certain country is prohibited by the authorities. The Antigua-based fugitive, who had been absconding since Sunday, was held by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Dominica three days later, as per The Observer. Dominica is a small island nation in the Caribbean Sea.

“We have asked the Dominican Government to detain him for entering their country illegally, to make him persona non grata and have him deported directly to India,” Antigua PM Gastron Browne had said.

Earlier on Tuesday, a police officer from Johnson Point police station (the precinct near where Choksi has a home) told Republic TV that a missing complaint had been filed by his family. Speaking exclusively to Republic TV's Executive Editor Niranjan Narayanaswamy, an officer from the Johnson Point Police Station said that the statement of Mehul Choksi's wife had been recorded after she lodged the missing persons complaint and that there were no details of whether the fugitive diamond merchant had fled to Cuba. Noting that precise information about Mehul Choksi was still unknown to the Police, the Antiguan cop told Republic that his car was spotted in the Jolly Harbour area at a distance from his residence. He was later found to have been apprehended by the Criminal Investigation Department.

Mehul Choksi faces the prospect of extradition

Mehul Choksi is under the scanner of both the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate. Along with his nephew Nirav Modi, he allegedly siphoned off Rs 13,500 crore of public money from the Punjab National Bank (PNB), using letters of undertaking. Owner of the Gitanjali group, a retail jewellery company, Choksi secured the citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda in November 2017 under the aegis of the Citizenship by Investment Programme and fled to the island nation in the first week of January 2018.

India formally sought Choksi's extradition in August 2018 underlining the principle of reciprocity, the principle of dual criminality, and the United Nations Convention against Corruption to which both countries are signatories. In 2019, Antigua and Barbuda PM Gaston Browne said that Mehul Choksi will be revoked and will be extradited to India once all his legal options are exhausted. The current legal status of the fugitive diamantaire is shrouded in mystery as Aggarwal has stressed that the PNB scam accused remains a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda.