Mehul Choksi is our citizen: Indian government to Dominica court

India has conveyed to a court in Dominica that fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi continues to be its citizen and must be repatriated from the Caribbean Sea island nation.

Choksi renounced citizenship of India on December 14, 2018. He submitted his passport at the High Commission of India at Georgetown in Guyana along with the requisite citizenship renunciation fee.

But the Government of India conveyed to him on March 15, 2019, that his plea for renunciation of citizenship had been rejected, Azad Singh, a diplomat of the High Commission of India at Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago, deposed in an affidavit submitted before the court in Dominica.

Read more: Mehul Choksi denied bail on grounds of flight risk by High Court in Dominica

New Delhi has been trying to get him repatriated from Dominica to India, where he would have to stand trial for colluding with his nephew and jeweller Nirav Modi in defrauding the Punjab National Bank of Rs 13500 crore.

The diamantaire was reported missing from Jolly Harbour township in Antigua and Barbuda on May 23 last. He was arrested from Canefield Beach in Roseau, the capital of Dominica, on May 26. He, however, alleged before the court in Roseau that he had been kidnapped from Antigua and Barbuda and brought to Dominica.

The 62-year-old remains in the custody of the law enforcement agencies of Dominica - in a hospital in its capital city.

The Government of India also deposed before the court that Choksi had taken the citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda fraudulently.

Choksi was granted the citizenship of the A&B by the Browne’s Government in November 2017. He had taken oath as a citizen of A&B in January 2018 – just days after fleeing from India.