'Mehul Choksi Extremely Sick, Undergoing Cancer Treatment': Lawyer
Choksi has been arrested in Belgium following an extradition request by Indian probe agencies for his involvement in the PNB bank loan "fraud" case, official sources said on Monday.
Fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi's lawyer has said they will appeal against his detention in the Rs 13,000 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan fraud case. The lawyer, Vijay Aggarwal, said Choksi was "extremely sick" and undergoing treatment for cancer in Belgium.
Choksi has been arrested in Belgium following an extradition request by Indian probe agencies for his involvement in the PNB bank loan "fraud" case, official sources said on Monday.
The action against the second "prime suspect" in this case, after Choksi's nephew Nirav Modi, was taken on Saturday based on an extradition request moved by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Choksi was located in Belgium last year when he went there on the grounds of getting medical treatment. He had been staying in Antigua since 2018 after leaving India.
The Interpol Red Notice against him for arrest was "deleted" sometime back, and the Indian agencies were pursuing him via the extradition route since then, multiple media reports added.
At least two open-ended arrest warrants, issued by a special court in Mumbai in 2018 and 2021, have been shared by the Indian agencies with their Belgian counterparts as part of the extradition request, the sources said.
Choksi, Modi, their family members and employees, bank officials and others were booked by the CBI and the ED in 2018 for perpetrating the alleged loan fraud at the Brady House branch of the Punjab National Bank (PNB) in Mumbai.
It was alleged that Choksi, his firm Gitanjali Gems and others "committed the offence of cheating against PNB in connivance with certain bank officials by fraudulently getting the LOUs (letters of undertaking) issued and got the FLCs (foreign letter of credit) enhanced without following prescribed procedure and caused a wrongful loss to the bank".
The CBI has filed at least two chargesheets against him in this case while the ED has filed three such prosecution complaints.
Top Headlines
