Mehul Choksi's legal team files habeas corpus plea in Dominica; temporary relief by court

After being detained for illegally entering Dominica, Mehul Choksi's legal team filed a habeas petition on Thursday highlighting deprivation of constitutional rights. Habeas Corpus is a writ requiring a person under arrest to be produced before a court, especially to secure a person's release. Speaking to ANI, the fugitive diamantaire's lawyer Vijay Aggarwal claimed that his client had "torture marks" on his body and was abducted by various persons from Antigua who brought him to Dominica.

His local lawyer Wayne Marsh came down heavily on Antigua and Barbuda PM Gaston Browne for refusing to accept the PNB scam accused back in the island nation. Stressing that he is no longer an Indian citizen, Marsh asserted that this construed a breach of human and constitutional rights. In another development, the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court has temporarily stayed the repatriation of Choksi until 9 am on May 28 when the matter will be heard, and allowed him to meet the legal counsel. Earlier, the Dominican government had announced that it will make arrangements for the fugitive's repatriation to Antigua and Barbuda after ascertaining his citizenship status. 

India pushes for Choksi's 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 has been accused of allegedly siphoning 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 was quoted as saying that the citizenship of 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 his lawyer Vijay Aggarwal has stressed that the PNB scam accused remains a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda. 

Speaking on the Mehul Choksi case to Republic TV a day earlier, Antigua and Barbuda PM Gaston Browne remarked, "Well, he had the constitutional protections associated with citizenship that's why we could not have acted. If he was not a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda, we would have made him persona non-grata and repatriated him a long time ago. But we had to respect these constitutional protections."