New Delhi:
Fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi is living in Belgium’s Antwerp with wife Preeti Choksi, a citizen of Belgium, a report by Associates Times said. Indian authorities have contacted their Belgian counterparts to start the process of Mr Choksi’s extradition to India, the news website reported.
The man wanted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for allegedly defrauding Punjab National Bank (PNB) of Rs 13,850 crore was believed to be living in the Caribbean island nation of Antigua and Barbuda.
However, the diamantaire from Gujarat left Antigua and Barbuda for medical treatment though he remains a citizen of the island nation, its foreign minister EP Chet Greene told news agency ANI on March 19.
Mr Choksi, 65, is living in Belgium on an “F residency card” that he got on November 15, 2023, helped by his Belgian national wife.
Using this card, a third-country national living legally in Belgium may, under certain conditions, be accompanied or joined by his or her spouse.
The fugitive businessman allegedly used misleading and fabricated papers to apply for residency in Belgium and resist extradition to India, Associates Times reported.
Mr Choksi has not given up his Indian citizenship. It is being speculated that if the temporary Belgian residency converts into a permanent residency, it may give Mr Choksi freedom to travel across countries in Europe, which could make it difficult for India to tighten the extradition net around him.
Reports also suggest Mr Choksi may be planning to move to Switzerland for treatment at a cancer hospital, likely Hirslanden Klinik Aarau. He appears to be looking at invoking humanitarian grounds as the reasons why he should not be sent back to India.
Mr Choksi fled India in January 2018 after the PNB fraud case surfaced. In May 2024, he told a special court in Mumbai that he has not been able to return to India “due to reasons beyond (my) control”, and so could not be called a “fugitive economic offender”.
This was after the ED filed an application to the special court to declare him a fugitive economic offender for evading its summons, and for his properties to be seized.
In May 2021 he went missing from Antigua, sparking speculation he had been kidnapped by the Indian government – an absurd claim proven false after he was found on another Caribbean island nation – Dominica.
In December 2024, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told parliament that properties worth Rs 22,280 crore had been restored or sold off to pay back debts of wanted individuals like Mr Choksi.
His nephew Nirav Modi, another accused in the PNB fraud case who bolted from India to escape arrest, is tangled in a legal battle in Britain against his extradition to India.
