Had no role in Choksi’s abduction: Antigua PM
NEW DELHI: Two weeks after Dominica dropped the charge of illegal entry against Mehul Choksi based on a report by the Antigua and Barbuda Royal Police, Antiguan Prime Minister Gaston Browne has denied his government’s involvement in the fugitive businessman’s abduction last year.
“It is true that I stated publicly that our preference would have been for him to be repatriated directly to India from Dominica, but that was on the basis that he skipped the island. At that time, we had no information or the slightest speculation that he may have been abducted,” Browne told Antiguan parliament on Tuesday. He maintained his government never facilitated Choksi’s disappearance.
News portal Antiguanewsroom quoted Browne saying that if the Indian government needed his country’s help with the extradition, there would not be the need for a third party to get Choksi out of his country.
“There is no way that we would have been involved in any decision or any attempt to have him removed from the state illegally. If he was not a citizen, he would have been made a persona non grata and you would be assured that before law enforcement would have gone for him, there would have been a plane on the tarmac to take him back to India,” Browne said.
Opposition parties in Antigua , as well as Dominica, have been demanding the governments of both the Caribbean nations come clean on the issue after the Dominican prosecutors last month decided to drop charges against Choksi.
After he went missing on May 23, 2021, from Antigua, where he is a citizen, and was found in Dominica the next day, Choksi and his legal team alleged he was abducted by Indian agents, tortured, and brought to Dominica in a vessel. He alleged a Hungarian woman and two British citizens were among 7-8 people who abducted and took him to Dominica. The three have denied the allegations.
The Dominica Police booked Choksi for illegally entering the country following which the Indian government flew in a team of investigators in the hopes of securing his deportation. Choksi filed a habeas corpus in the Dominica high court alleging abduction and torture and was sent back to Antigua on medical grounds.
The Antiguan Royal police were investigating abduction charges following a complaint by the fugitive businessman’s lawyers.
In a 19-page report, Antiguan police concurred with the claims of Choksi that he was forcibly taken away by five persons and dropped in Dominica. They have sought Interpol’s help to trace the alleged abductors.
Browne said on Tuesday that the police report is yet to be shared with any member of his Cabinet or the office of attorney general. He stressed that his government took immediate action when Choksi went missing last year. Browne said when Choksi was first reported missing, his concern was that they would be accused of facilitating his escape. “...so, we got on to the police and asked them to issue a missing person notice to Interpol.”
Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit is yet to comment on his country’s decision to drop charges against Choksi, who is in Antigua, where the Indian government is fighting for his extradition.
Choksi’s lawyer, Vijay Aggarwal, last month said tha truth always comes out in the end, no matter how hard anyone tries to stop it or hide it. “Lies are just temporary delays to the inevitable. It was extremely insensitive for some people to call injuries on my client Mehul Choksi to be fake because of some legal strategy.”
The Indian government is yet to comment on the matter.