Choksi moves court to prevent extradition from Antigua

Fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi has moved the High Court of Antigua and Barbuda to prevent the government of the island nation to extradite him to India.

Choksi is accused of colluding with his nephew and billionaire jeweller, Nirav Modi, to defraud the Punjab National Bank of about Rs 14000 crore. Though the passport issued to him by the Government of India has been revoked in February 2018, it recently came to light that the Government of Antigua and Barbuda had already granted him citizenship in November 2017 itself.

He has moved the court in St John's even as India stepped up pressure on the Government of Antigua and Barbuda (A&B) to detain him and prevent him from travelling out of the country by land or air or sea.

Choksi urged the A&B High Court to bar the government of the country from detaining him for extradition on the request of India, according to the reports received in New Delhi from the island nation's capital, St John's, early on Tuesday.

He moved the court on Monday – the day India's High Commissioner to Guyana, V Mahalingam, reached St John's and met the senior officials of the A&B Government to convey them New Delhi's request for immediately detaining Choksi.

Mahalingam is also accredited as New Delhi's envoy to A&B.

In a petition to the High Court in St John's, Choksi argued that he had been granted citizenship of the West Indies archipelago in accordance with the Section 119.1 of its Constitution. He also argued that the Extradition Act 1993 of A&B did not permit the government of the country to act against him on request of New Delhi.

India has no extradition treaty with A&B, but the government of the country indicated that it was ready to cooperate with New Delhi, albeit within its own legal framework.

The A&B Government's decision to grant citizenship to the fugitive diamantaire was defended by Prime Minister of the country Gaston Browne himself.

Browne recently told a TV channel that Government of India should have got Interpol to issue a Red Corner Notice against Choksi. He also said that his government had found nothing against Choksi when he was granted citizenship in November 2017.

The Interpol earlier this month issued a Red Corner Notice against Modi, but no such notice was issued against Choksi so far.

Browne told the TV channel that A&B authorities could cooperate with Government of India to find Choksi if it was formally requested to do so.

Modi and his uncle Choksi fled the country in the first week of January, several days before the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate launched probes against them for allegedly defrauding the Punjab National Bank. The Ministry of External Affairs in February 2018 revoked the passports issued to both of them. Modi remains untraceable, but Choksi has of late been traced to Antigua. The reports received in New Delhi indicated that the A&B Government had granted citizenship to Choksi much before the PNB scam came to light. He had taken oath as a citizen of the Caribbean Island nation on January 15.

Sources in New Delhi on Monday said that as soon as the MEA had received information that Choksi might be in Antigua, the High Commission of India at Georgetown in Guyana had “alerted” the government of the island nation, “both in writing and verbally”. The High Commission of India to Guyana had asked the A&B Government “to confirm his presence” in its territory and detain him and prevent his movement by land, air or sea”, added the sources.