India worried as Mehul Choksi goes missing despite A&B govt's promise to keep him under watch

As Mehul Choksi went missing from Antigua and Barbuda, New Delhi has conveyed its concern to the island nation’s government, which had promised to keep the fugitive diamantaire under watch as long as he would continue to explore legal options to prevent his extradition to India.

New Delhi requested Prime Minister Gaston Browne’s government in Saint John’s to keep it updated about the investigation launched into the disappearance of the billionaire, who allegedly colluded with his nephew and jeweller Nirav Modi to defraud the Punjab National Bank of about Rs 14,000 crore.

Choksi was reported missing at Johnson Point Police Station in Antigua on Sunday. He went missing after leaving his home at the Jolly Harbour township on the west coast of Antigua last Sunday. 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 Antigua and Barbuda (A&B) government already informed the Interpol, which had issued a Red Corner Notice against him.

The A&B police issued a press-release stating that they had conducted “numerous searches” based on “additional information”, but “to no avail”.

Choksi’s lawyer Vijay Aggarwal also confirmed to the PTI news agency that his client had gone missing in A&B.

The cops of A&B sought assistance from local residents to trace Choksi, whom they described as a 62-year-old man of “Indian descent, brown in complexion, five feet six inches (5’ 6”) in height, heavily built with a balding hairline”.

The High Commission of India in Guyana is tasked with managing New Delhi’s diplomatic relations with A&B too and it is in the process of obtaining further details from the authorities in Saint John’s about the disappearance of Choksi.

The A&B government conveyed to New Delhi that its police investigators had so far found no specific information to suggest that the diamantaire might have fled the nation, according to a source DH spoke to.

The issue was also raised in A&B Parliament where the Prime Minister of the country informed the lawmakers that his government had been in touch with the Interpol.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also got in touch with the Embassy of Antigua and Barbuda in New Delhi to seek further details about the probe into the disappearance of Choksi, whom the government of the island nation had granted citizenship in November 2017 taking into account his investment in that country.

Choksi had taken oath as a citizen of A&B in January 2018 – just days after he and Nirav Modi fled India. The Ministry of External Affairs had in February 2018 revoked the passports issued to both Choksi and Modi.

A source said that New Delhi had specifically requested the A&B Government to stop him from fleeing the country by sea, land and air. The A&B Government had assured New Delhi that he would be kept under watch till the local high court would pronounce verdict on his lawsuit, challenging any move to strip him of his citizenship of the tiny country and to extradite him to India.

India 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 country from detaining him for extradition on the request of India.

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. Nirav Modi, however, still has options to challenge it in the High Court and the Supreme Court of the UK.