New Delhi:
The government is aware that businessman Mehul Choksi – wanted in connection with the Rs 13,850 crore Punjab National Bank scam – was arrested in Belgium over the weekend, and is working towards a quick extradition, sources told NDTV Monday afternoon. A request to deport Mr Choksi to India has been made, sources said, stressing the government will use every legal tool available to bring him back.
Should Mr Choksi – an international fugitive for over seven years now, since he fled to the US in January 2018 – be brought back to India, his will be the second high-profile extradition this year, after terrorist Tahawwur Rana, a 26/11 Mumbai attack accused, was extradited from the US.
Mehul Choksi, 65, was arrested by Belgium authorities on Saturday.
This was after the Belgian Foreign Ministry confirmed to NDTV that Mehul Choksi – who fled from India to the US and then to the Caribbean island nation of Antigua to avoid arrest – was in that country. The Belgian ministry told NDTV it attached “great importance” to the matter.
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Mr Choksi is expected to mount a series of legal challenges to India’s extradition request, beginning with a request for bail citing his age and medical condition; he is a cancer patient.
READ | Mehul Choksi’s Lawyer On Grounds For Appeal Against Arrest
“My client is not a flight risk. He is extremely sick and is undergoing treatment for cancer,” his lawyer, Vijay Aggarwal told reporters after the arrest. Mr Choksi and his wife, Preeti Choksi, a Belgian citizen, had been living in Antwerp after he obtained a ‘residency card’.
READ | “Reasons Beyond Control”: Mehul Choksi On Why He Isn’t In India
Mr Choksi and his nephew, Nirav Modi – awaiting extradition from London – are wanted by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate for allegedly cheating PNB of nearly Rs 14,000 crore in 2018.
READ | Who Is Mehul Choksi, Fugitive Tycoon Arrested In Belgium
He fled India in 2018 and later acquired citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda. He reportedly left the island for treatment of his cancer and was, sources said, planning to move to Switzerland.
Last month Antigua Foreign Minister EP Chet Greene confirmed Mr Choksi had left.
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