Court junks Mehul Choksi's plea against notice to declare him Fugitive Economic Offender

Mumbai: A special court here on Friday rejected diamond merchant Mehul Choksi's plea against a notice issued to him on the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) application seeking to declare him a Fugitive Economic Offender in the multi-million dollar PNB scam.

Special judge for cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) S M Menjoge noted that the court order issuing the notice was not based on the "wrong facts or mistaken assumptions".

Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi are prime accused in an alleged fraud at the Punjab National Bank (PNB) that came to light in 2018.

Choksi, in his plea filed through advocates Vijay Agarwal and Rahul Agarwal, claimed that the central probe agency kept changing its arguments regarding the evidence and grounds on the basis of which it wants him declared an FEO.

The lawyers cited multiple pleas and replies of the ED to show its `contradictory' arguments.

In the application seeking to declare Choksi as an FEO, the ED claimed he left the country under suspicious circumstances in the first week of January 2018. But in a rejoinder filed later it claimed that the accused had anticipated that the fraud would be unearthed, and hence he tried to dispose of his properties before fleeing the country, Choksi's lawyers pointed out.

In a compliance report filed in September this year, as directed by the court, the ED added the act of applying for a visa to Antigua and Barbuda as an act of planning to leave India and obtaining citizenship of the Caribbean nation, Choksi's plea said.

Advocate Vijay Agarwal contended that Choksi left India in January 2018 for medical treatment, and the offence was registered in February that year.

As his Indian passport was suspended by the passport authority, he could not return to India to participate in the investigation. The grounds mentioned in the ED application to declare him an FEO do not exist in the changed circumstances, hence the notice should be recalled, the lawyer argued.

The ED, represented by special public prosecutors Hiten Vennegaokar and Kavita Patil, contended that all the relevant documents were on record and there was no change in its stand.

Choksi has received the notice and can come back to India by obtaining travel documents from competent authorities, the ED said.

He has also not challenged the order of suspension of his Indian passport to date, the probe agency pointed out.

The judge, after hearing both the sides, said that upon perusal of documents on record, he did not find any change in the ED's stand.

Under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, if any individual against whom a warrant has been issued in relation to an economic offence has left the country to avoid criminal prosecution, he or she can be declared an FEO.

Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi are wanted by the ED and CBI for allegedly defrauding the PNB to the tune of Rs 13,400 crore in collusion with a few bank employees.

Nirav Modi has already been declared as FEO by the court and is languishing at a jail in London since 2019.