‘Will Continue To Make All Efforts To Bring Fugitives Like Mehul Choksi To Face Justice In India’: MEA

“As regards Mehul Choksi, I don’t have any particular update this week. He remains in custody of Dominican authorities and certain legal proceedings are underway,” MEA said.

Mehul Choksi (Image Source: PTI)

New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said all efforts will continue to be made to bring back fugitives to face justice in India.

“As regards Mehul Choksi, I don’t have any particular update this week. He remains in custody of Dominican authorities and certain legal proceedings are underway,” PTI quoted MEA official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi as saying at an online media briefing.

Fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi’s legal battle to prevent his extradition is getting tougher as the Dominican government has declared him a 'prohibited immigrant'.

The Dominican National Security and Home Affairs Ministry has directed the police to take necessary action to remove Choksi from Dominica as per the procedure.

On the other hand, his lawyer Vijay Aggarwal has claimed that Choksi did not enter Dominica illegally and the police cannot arrest him as he is not a “prohibited immigrant”.

Choksi along with his nephew Nirav Modi is accused in the Rs 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case.

India had earlier presented its case to enable extradition and present evidence of Choksi's financial fraud to Dominica and urged the country to clear his deportation.

The MEA official spokesperson further said the issue of economic offenders was discussed last month during the UK-India talks.

Bagchi said the UK had conveyed that there are some legal hurdles because of the nature of the criminal justice system in that country.

He, however, added the British side will do whatever possible to make sure that such people are extradited at the earliest.

Responding to a poser on Nirav Modi, the MEA official spokesperson said: “We understand that Nirav Modi is seeking to appeal against this decision. He remains in the custody of UK authorities.”

India has been seeking extradition of fugitives Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya from the UK to face trial in the country.