Choksi moved to Antigua this month, got local passport

Fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi has moved to Antigua from the US and has taken the passport of the Caribbean country, government sources said.

In response to the diffusion notice issued by the Interpol, the Enforcement Directorate has been informed by the Antiguan authorities that Choksi arrived there this month and had taken the passport of that country, they said.

Choksi had fled India in the first week of January, nearly a fortnight before the country's biggest banking fraud surfaced.

The CBI has booked Choksi, uncle of his alleged partner-in-crime Nirav Modi, in two cases related to the scam and filed chargesheet against him.

A special court in Mumbai has issued a Non-Bailable Warrant against him.

Armed with the warrant, the CBI moved the Interpol for issuance of a Red Corner Notice (RCN) against the Gitanjali group promoter, who is one of the masterminds behind the $2 billion PNB scam, but it is still under process. On this basis, request for the Red Corner Notice was moved in June.

While the RCN has been issued against Nirav and his brother Nishal by the Interpol, the request for such a notice against Choksi is pending with the Lyon-based international police cooperation agency, they said.

The issuance of RCN would mean that the member countries of the Lyon-based international police cooperation agency can arrest and extradite him.

The CBI, in its chargesheets filed on May 14, had said that Nirav, through his companies, siphoned off funds to the tune of Rs 6,498.20 crore using fraudulent LoUs issued from PNB's Brady House branch in Mumbai.

Choksi reportedly swindled Rs 7080.86 crore, making it possibly the biggest banking scam in the country.