'No reliable info that Mehul Choksi has fled': Antigua PM

Prime Minister Gaston Browne said that the country is “coordinating with India and Interpol to locate him”.

Antiguan prime minister Gaston Browne on Tuesday hinted that fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi has not fled the country, according to a video posted by antiguanewsroom.com. Browne said that there is no reliable information to confirm that Choksi has fled the country.

File photo: Fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi . (Hindustan Times)

“Mr Choksi was reported as missing. Since then, the Stratcom unit of Antigua and Barbuda police force has issued a statement. In fact, that statement will be shared with the Interpol and we have been collaborating with the Indian government as well. Mr Choksi has two cases before the courts of Antigua and Barbuda. One is the extradition to India, and the second one is the revocation of his citizenship. From all indications, Mr Mehul Choksi has very strong interests here to fight those two cases,’ Browne said in the Antiguan parliament on Tuesday.

“I would not believe that law enforcement or anyone for that matter would have contemplated that Mr Choksi would have fled the country. In any case, we don’t have any reliable information to date to confirm that he has fled the country. It is likely that he may still be here and law enforcement is utilizing all efforts, including all intelligence to locate him,” Browne said.

He added that in case it is true that Choksi has indeed fled the country, “we could get a judgement in absentia and we will revoke his citizenship in due course.”

Browne said that “if indeed, Mr Choksi has fled the country as speculated, it would have been by boat because no aircraft with any flight plan (to Cuba) and any passenger by the name of Mehul Choksi would have been found by the authority,” adding that “no plane would have landed in this country illegally.”

Talking about speculations that Choksi may be in Cuba, Browne said, “If he is in Cuba, it would have been by boat and he would have to leave within a matter of 36 hours, which is extremely unlikely.”

Browne added “law enforcement continues to collaborate with regional and international police to make sure that he is located, just in case he may have absconded. But again Mr Speaker, we don’t have any reliable information to date to confirm that indeed he has absconded”.

Police in Antigua have launched a search for Choksi, who went missing in the tiny Caribbean island on Sunday evening after heading to a popular local restaurant for dinner, according to his lawyer and a missing persons notice issued by the country’s Royal Police Force.

Indian agencies have also alerted the Interpol for more information about his whereabouts, people familiar with the developments said.

Reports in the Antiguan media on Monday suggested that Choksi may have fled to Cuba fearing his extradition to India but his lawyer Vijay Aggarwal denied the contention and Indian agencies said they had no such information.

“Mehul Choksi is missing. His family members are worried and anxious and had called me to discuss. Antigua police are investigating. The family is in the dark and worried about his safety,” Aggarwal told HT.

A report in a Caribbean news website Associates Times, quoting a person named Govin, a purported close aide of Choksi, claimed that he had “left the country a few days ago and is currently living in a safe house in based in Cuba”. The claim, however, appeared at odds with the police’s version of events, and of his last sighting.

Choksi, who has sought refuge in Antigua after allegedly cheating Punjab National Bank of ₹13,578 crore along with his nephew Nirav Modi, and fleeing India in 2018, left his home on Sunday “to go for dinner at a well-known restaurant in the southern part of the island and was never seen again,” according to a report in the antiguanewsroom.com.

The diamond merchant’s vehicle was found at Jolly Harbour, a popular nightlife hub on the 280 square km island with a population of less than 100,000 that is famous for its cricketing antecedents -- it is the home of talismanic West Indies batsman Sir Vivian Richards and iconic fast bowler Andy Roberts. Antigua famously has 365 beaches, “one for every day of the year”, according to its tourism tagline.

Police in Antigua have sought public assistance to gather information on Choksi, who, according to a police statement, was last seen at about 5:15 pm (local time) before leaving for home in a car, which has since been recovered.

After an official complaint was lodged at the Johnson Point Police Station, the police launched a manhunt. “Based on additional information received, the police have conducted numerous searches but to no avail,” the local police said in the statement on Monday.

Giving information on his physical attributes for identification purpose, the police statement asked people to inform the Johnson Point Police Station or the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) if they had any information on his whereabouts. “Mehul is described as being of Indian descent, brown in complexion, five feet six inches (5’ 6”) in height, heavily built with a balding hairline. The police are seeking the assistance of the public in knowing the whereabouts of Mr Choksi,” the police statement said.

Indian officials that HT spoke to, both in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), said they are in touch with the concerned Antiguan officials through the ministry of external affairs (MEA), and were confident that Choksi would be traced soon.

India has been pursuing Choksi’s extradition in Antigua since 2018, and an Interpol red notice is pending against him.

In a charge sheet filed last year, ED alleged that Choksi did not just defraud Indian banks, but customers and lenders in Dubai and the US as well. His assets worth ₹2,500 crores have already been attached.

As reported by HT in March, Antigua & Barbuda has initiated the process to cancel Choksi’s citizenship granted under the Caribbean nation’s Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP) in November 2017. He has challenged the move in a court in the Caribbean nation.

India has an extradition arrangement with Antigua and Barbuda. As per the provisions of the Extradition Act, 1993 of Antigua and Barbuda, a fugitive may be extradited to a designated Commonwealth country or a state with which there are general or special arrangements or a bilateral treaty.

Choksi’s extradition is pending since 2018 in court there, which he has challenged.

People familiar with his citizenship said that Choksi has approached the high court there against Antigua’s process to revoke his citizenship but the whole legal battle may take some time.

His nephew Nirav Modi is currently lodged in a UK jail. The Westminster’s Court in London, in February this year, ordered his extradition, which he has challenged in the UK high court.

Sherbir Panag, partner at Panag and Babu and international legal expert on white collar crimes, said, “Assuming that Mehul Choksi has left the country after he felt that India’s diplomatic efforts to bring him back here are working, he will try to place himself in a jurisdiction which doesn’t have extradition arrangement/treaty with India”.