Mehul Choksi Trial: Fugitive Diamantaire Skips Hearing, Lawyers Say Mental Stress & High BP

The medical certificate produced by lawyers said he was suffering from "mental stress" and experienced high blood pressure

Mehul Choksi (File Photo)

New Delhi: Even as the legal battle for the fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi gets difficult, the businessman didn’t appear in Magistrate's Court in Roseau on June 14 for the commencement of the trial against him over his illegal entry into the Caribbean country.

He didn’t appear in the court because of mental stress and high blood pressure, informed his lawyers to the court.

The case regarding Choksi’s illegal entry into the Caribbean nation was heard by Chief Magistrate Candia Carette-George at the Magistrate's Court in Roseau. The prosecution, led by Dominica's Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Sherma Dalrymple, told the court that it is "ready to proceed to trial", as per the Antigua News Room.

Dalrymple introduced the inclusion of Indian lawyer Harpreet Giana to the state's team of prosecutors.

As a result of failure to appear in the court for the commencement of the trial, his lawyers presented a medical certificate signed by a doctor from the Dominica China Friendship Hospital where Choksi has been undergoing treatment for the past two weeks.

The medical certificate says that Mehul Choksi was a "no show" in court since he was suffering from "mental stress" and experienced high blood pressure. The trial was later adjourned and will be heard on June 25. The judge has also ordered for Choksi to be brought to court on June 17 for further remand.

Mehul Choksi will remain under police guard as a patient at the Dominica China Friendship Hospital until the next date of the trial.

Choksi disappeared from Antigua on May 23 after going out for dinner and was later held in Dominica. He was charged with illegal entry by the police in Dominica after he allegedly escaped from Antigua and Barbuda in a possible attempt to evade extradition to India.

The 62-year-old fugitive is wanted in India in connection with a Rs 13,500-crore fraud in the Punjab National Bank (PNB).