Hand over Mehul Choksi, he is our citizen: Govt tells Dominica
NEW DELHI: Efforts have been scaled up by the Government of India to bring back fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi. Sources said that multiple agencies are in touch with the government of Dominica on the issue which has been told that Choksi is originally an Indian citizen and had taken on new citizenship to escape the law in India after having committed a fraud of almost two billion US dollars.
India through back-channel and diplomatic route has clearly told Dominica that Mehul Choksi should be treated as a fugitive Indian citizen who has an Interpol Red Corner notice against him and he should be handed over to Indian authorities for deportation and to face the law in India for his alleged deeds which have robbed the Indian public of billions of dollars. There is no case for Choksi to deny his Indian citizenship as any other citizenship is a front to hide his alleged crimes.
Pics show fugitive with injury marks: Days after he was found and later arrested in Dominica, the first pictures of India-born fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi surfaced showing him sustaining several injuries.
The pictures, supplied by the AntiguaNewsRoom, is showing him sustaining several injuries on his hands and the left eye which appeared bruised and swollen. Posting the picture, the AniguaNewsRoom tweeted, “First pictures emerge of Mehul Choksi behind bars.” Choksi’s Dominica-based lawyer Wayne Marsh had said that his client was abducted from Antigua on May 23 and beaten up. “I noticed that he was severely beaten, his eyes were swollen and had several burnt marks on his body (apparently burnt by some electronic device). He reported to me that he was abducted at Jolly Harbour in Antigua and brought to Dominica by persons whom he believed to be Indian and Antiguan police on a vessel he described to be 60-70 feet in length,” Marsh said.
There was, however, no immediate official confirmation from Indian authorities about it. A Qatar Airways private jet landed at the Douglas-Charles airport in Dominica, Antigua News Room reported, leading to speculations about deportation of Choksi who was detained in the Caribbean island nation after his mysterious disappearance from neighbouring Antigua and Barbuda.
Browne also accused his country’s Opposition United Progressive Party (UPP) of supporting Choksi in order to secure campaign funding. “After mischievously accusing my administration of harbouring Mehul Choksi, who has an Interpol Red Notice, they are now seeking to sanitize this fugitive to get campaign funding. My administration’s revocation of Choksi’s citizenship has been frustrated by a litigation brought against the state,” Browne said.