Fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi captured in Dominica

Fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi was arrested from a beach in Roseau, the capital of Dominica, on Wednesday – three days after he went missing from Antigua and Barbuda.

Choksi was apparently having a stopover in Dominica on his way to Cuba after fleeing from Antigua and Barbuda. But the billionaire was arrested by police when he was seen discarding some documents into the sea. He would be sent back to Antigua and Barbuda soon, according to the reports received in New Delhi so far.

He was arrested from Canefield Beach in Roseau when he was destroying some documents by throwing them into the sea.

India does not have a diplomatic mission in Dominica. The High Commission of India in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, manages New Delhi’s relation with Dominica and it has been asked to collect details about the arrest of the 62-year-old. The High Commission of India in Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, has also been in touch with the Government of Antigua and Barbuda, ever since he went missing last Sunday.

When the cops spotted Choksi on the beach in Roseau and questioned him, he could not explain why and how he had travelled to Dominica. The West Indies and Caribbean News reported that scuba divers had been engaged to retrieve the documents the billionaire had thrown into the sea.

Choksi is wanted in India, as he allegedly colluded with his nephew and jeweller Nirav Modi to defraud the Punjab National Bank of about Rs 13500 crore. The duo left India in January 2018.

Choksi had taken oath as a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda (A&B) in January 2018. The Ministry of External Affairs had in February 2018 revoked the passports issued to both Choksi and Modi, stripping them of the citizenship of India.

New Delhi had in August 2018 sent to the A&B Government two separate requests seeking extradition of Choksi. The owner of Gitanjali Gems, however, had by then already moved the A&B High Court to bar the government of the island nation from detaining him for extradition on the request of India. Prime Minister Gaston Browne’s government in St John’s had conveyed to New Delhi that he would be extradited to India as soon as he would exhaust all his legal options.

Choksi had been reported missing at Johnson Point Police Station in Antigua on Sunday. He had gone missing after leaving his home at the Jolly Harbour township on the west coast of Antigua. He was last seen at 5:15 p.m. (local time in Antigua and Barbuda) that day. His car was later found abandoned by the police.

The Interpol had issued a Red Corner Notice against him long back. The A&B authorities had also got the Interpol to issue Yellow Notice against him after he had been reported missing.

The Browne’s Government conveyed to New Delhi that it was in favour of stripping Choksi of the A&B citizenship and might do so once he would exhaust all his legal options.

India and A&B have no bilateral extradition treaty. But New Delhi and St John's are of the view that since India, like A&B, is also a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Section 7 of the country's Extradition Act 1993 does provide a scope for acting on the request for sending back the jeweller even in the absence of a bilateral treaty. Sources in New Delhi, however, said that even if the A&B government was keen to cooperate with the Government of India, the extradition would not be possible unless the courts in the island nation cleared it.

Choksi’s nephew Modi had been arrested in London in March 2019. His extradition to India was cleared by British Home Secretary, Priti Patel, last month, after the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London had ruled in favour of it. Modi, however, still has options to challenge it in the High Court and the Supreme Court of the UK.