Dominica Withdraws Illegal Entry Case Against Fugitive Diamantaire Mehul Choksi

The 62-year-old fugitive had fled India on January 4, 2018 and took oath of allegiance in Antigua on January 15.

New Delhi: The authorities in Dominica on Saturday withdrew the case against fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi over his “illegal entry” into the island nation. This comes as Choksi had challenged the case registered against him, claiming that he was abducted from Antigua and Barbuda and taken to Dominica against his will, ANI reported.

Choksi is wanted in India by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, in the PNB fraud case, considered the biggest banking scam in the country.

Contesting the case against the 'illegal entry' claim, he alleged that he was kidnapped from Jolly Harbour in Antigua on May 23 by policemen looking like Antiguan and Indian and brought to Dominica on a boat.

After the decision of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Choksi’s lawyer Advocate Vijay Aggarwal told ANI, “Truth always comes out in the end, no matter how hard anyone tries to stop it or hide it. Lies are just temporary delays to the inevitable. It was extremely insensitive for some people to call injuries on my client Mehul Choksi to be fake because of some legal strategy."

The 62-year-old fugitive had fled India on January 4 in 2018 and took oath of allegiance in Antigua on January 15. The CBI had then sent its request to the Ministry of External Affairs for extradition of Choksi. He later went missing on May 23 in 2021 from Antigua but was soon caught in Dominica and charged with illegal entry.

Choksi, who is maternal uncle of Nirav Modi and wanted in the same case, flew back to Antigua in July last year after being granted bail by the Dominica High Court on medical grounds.

Earlier, while Dominica High Court granted interim bail to Choksi on medical grounds, his lawyer had said that all pending proceedings related to illegal entry against Mehul Choksi will be kept in abeyance till he gets medically fit to come back to Dominica. The lawyer also said that the matter against Choksi was one of forceful entry according them.

Choksi had acquired the citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda in 2017 using the Citizenship by Investment Programme even before fleeing India in the first week of January 2018. While Nirav Modi is lodged in a London prison after repeated denial of bail, and is contesting extradition to India.