Choksi in Antigua, has new passport
NEW DELHI: Diamond trader Mehul Choksi, facing a multi-agency probe in India in connection with the ₹14,000-crore PNB fraud, moved to Antigua and Barbuda and acquired a passport in the Caribbean country, according to government officials familiar with the development. The officials said he is still there but not been detained.
NEW DELHI: Diamond trader Mehul Choksi, facing a multiagency probe in India in connection with the ₹14,000-crore PNB fraud, moved to Antigua and Barbuda and acquired a passport in the Caribbean country, according to government officials familiar with the development. The officials said he is still there but not been detained.
“Investigation agencies have been informed by Interpol in response to a diffusion notice against Choksi that he reached
OFFICIALS FROM THE TWO AGENCIES SAID BOTH MODI AND CHOKSI LEFT THE COUNTRY IN THE FIRST WEEK OF JANUARY
Antigua on July 8 from the US and also holds an Antiguan passport,” said a government official who asked not to be named.
“Sister agencies have been provided with the information to take further action,” he added.
When contacted, Choksi’s lawyer Sanjay Abbot said: “I have no clue about it.”
The state-owned PNB has accused Choksi and his diamantaire nephew Nirav Modi of defrauding the bank through the use of unauthorised Letters of Undertaking and Foreign Letters of Credit that effectively act as bank guarantees.
Simultaneous probes were launched against them by the CBI, Enforcement Directorate, I-T department and the corporate affairs ministry. Formal charges have been filed by the CBI and ED. Officials from the two agencies said both Modi and Choksi left the country in the first week of January.
They have not returned despite repeated summons, taking the plea that there was an adverse sentiment against them and that they feared for their lives. In an application before a Mumbai court on Monday, Choksi sought the cancellation of a non-bailable warrant against him.
CBI has managed to secure red corner notices against Nirav and his brother Neeshal, who also left India in January, but a red corner notice has not yet been issued against Choksi.