Mehul Choksi Used Courts To Stay Revocation Of His Citizenship: Antigua PM

Browne, who told this to ANI in an exclusive conversation, further said “Choksi changed his lawyer to a well-known UPP (United Progressive Party) member, who had promised him protection, for campaign funding”.

Mehul Choksi (Image Source: PTI)

Saint John’s: Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne has said fugitive jeweller Mehul Choksi used the courts to stay the revocation of his citizenship instead of subjecting himself to an inquiry as required by law.

Browne, who told this to ANI in an exclusive conversation, further said “Choksi changed his lawyer to a well-known UPP (United Progressive Party) member, who had promised him protection, for campaign funding”.

“That’s why they want that he shouldn't be deported to India but back to Antigua where he could continue to hide behind constitutional protections,” he added.

The Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister’s office had earlier in a letter dated October 14, 2019, deprived Choksi of the country’s citizenship on the grounds of willful concealment of material facts and/or false representation for citizenship application.

Choksi, a key accused in the Rs-13,000-crore PNB loan fraud case in India, was recently arrested by the authorities in Dominica after he was found to have illegally entered the country from Antigua, where he had been staying since 2018.

The Indian government has sent a team of officials, including from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), from New Delhi to secure Choksi’s deportation to India.

A private jet is said to have reached Dominica on May 28 to ferry him back to India.

The matter is, however, currently facing a legal hurdle as Choksi’s lawyers have approached Dominica’s Supreme Court, which has stayed his movement out of the nation.

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

His lawyers, however, alleged that he was kidnapped from Jolly Harbour in Antigua by the policemen looking like Antiguan and Indian and brought to Dominica on a boat.

A habeas corpus petition was later filed in the Dominica court by Choksi's legal team, which is awaiting a response from the Dominica Police after which it will decide whether the businessman will be bailed out or he will be sent back to Antigua to prison.

His counsel Vijay Aggarwal had earlier said it is almost ruled out that he will come to India.