WOMAN PLANTED TO TRAP AND ABDUCT CHOKSI, CLAIMS LAWYER
NEW DELHI : The Mehul Choksi saga took a sensational turn on Monday with people familiar with the matter as well as the fugitive businessman’s lawyer claiming that a woman, who had become friendly with him over the past six months, played a part in his disappearance from Antigua and reappearance in Dominica.
Photographs of the woman, identified as Barbara Jarabica, were released by Antiguan media, with details of her education and employment, but HT could not verify the existence of such a person. News of the woman first emerged on Saturday, when Antiguan Prime Minister Gaston Browne claimed that Choksi fled the island for Dominica last Sunday along with his “girlfriend”.
Choksi, wanted in India in a fraud and money laundering case, fled to Antigua in January 2018 and became its citizen. He has been engaged in a legal battle with the Caribbean nation which wants to revoke his citizenship. Choksi went missing from Antigua last Sunday and later appeared in Dominica, where he has no rights since he is not a citizen.
His lawyers are trying to have him sent back to Antigua while India has made a claim for him in Dominica.
On Monday, his lawyer Vijay Aggarwal suggested that Choksi may have been honey trapped.
“I have been informed that there was some lady who was the part of the team deployed to trap and abduct Choksi. She was staying near Choksi’s residence and got friendly with the family . Later, she shifted the residence and invited Choksi to her house for a short while. There were other members of the team waiting (at her house) deployed to pick Mr Choksi. They grabbed him, threw him in a yacht and took him to Dominica,” he said in a statement.