Mehul Choksi's Extradition To India Still In Cliffhanger As Dominican Court Adjourns Matter Till Thursday

Mehul Choksi's lawyer informed that on the basis of Magistrate's order, the discussion will resume in court on Thursday at around 4 pm (local time).

Fugitive Business Mehul Choksi (File Photo/ Getty)

New Delhi: Dominican High Court court was on Wednesday was hearing the extradition case of fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi who had allegedly fled there from Antigua and Barbuda last week. As per latest inputs, the court proceedings are over for the day and the matter will be heard again tomorrow.

According to reports, Dominica government has urged the High Court to reject Choksi's plea and grant his deportation to India. The proceedings lasted for around three hours. The businessman reportedly attended the hearing virtually from the hospital.

"Mehul Choksi will be produced before magistrate today at 4 pm (Dominica time). If Dominica police arrest someone, he has to be presented before court in 72 hours, which wasn't done. That's why court has ordered to produce him before the magistrate at 4 pm," Choksi lawyer told news agency ANI.

The lawyer also said that on the basis of Magistrate's order, the discussion will resume in court tomorrow at around 4 pm (local time). "It proved our stand that Dominican police committed illegality by not producing him within 72 hours; the court agreed & said irregularity needs to be corrected," he added.

It is also being said that a team of multi-agency officials led by a CBI DIG has gone to Dominica to bring back absconding diamantaire to India if the courts in the Carribean island country allow his deportation.

Choksi mysteriously went missing on May 23 from Antigua and Barbuda where he has been staying since 2018 as a citizen, but was detained in neighbouring Dominica for illegal entry after a possible romantic escapade with his rumoured girlfriend.

However, his laywers have alleged that the fugitive businessman was kidnapped from Jolly Harbour in Antigua by some officials and brought to Dominica. 

Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne had said Dominica and law enforcement agencies, unless the court rules otherwise, can deport him to India because he is an Indian citizen.

Choksi along with his nephew Nirav Modi had fled India in the first week of January, 2018 weeks before Rs 13,500 crore scam in Punjab National Bank rocked Indian banking industry.

The duo allegedly bribed the officials of state run bank to get Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) on the basis of which they availed from overseas banks which remained unpaid.