India pushes to get Choksi repatriated from the Caribbean
ANTIGUA & BARBUDA DOMINICA
Government investigators on Thursday pushed to bring back fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi, who was captured in Dominica two days after mysteriously vanishing from Antigua & Barbuda, even as the businessman’s lawyers alleged he was abducted and deportation to India was not legally permitted.
Indian-born Choksi, who fled the country in 2018 after being charged in the ₹13,578 Punjab National Bank cheating case, was apprehended by the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) in the Caribbean island of Dominica on Tuesday night on the basis of an Interpol “yellow notice”. He had gone missing in Antigua on Sunday evening, roughly 101 nautical miles away.
The Indian government was coordinating with both Dominica and Antigua & Barbuda to bring Choksi back, considering he was currently located illegally in a jurisdiction from where he could be repatriated on the basis of the Interpol red notice, people familiar with developments said.
A senior Indian investigator agreed that India now had better chances to bring Choksi back. “We are in touch with authorities in Dominica to get him repatriated to India. He is not a citizen there so he can be deported quickly,” he said on condition of anonymity.
In Antigua, PM Gaston
NEW DELHI:
Choksi is apprehended by the police two days later in the northern part of the Caribbean island nation of Dominica. He is held on the basis of an Interpol ‘yellow notice’
MARTINIQUE
IT’S COMPLICATED: THE ROAD AHEAD
For India, the road ahead is likely to be complicated because while New Delhi has an extradition arrangement with Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica is among the 58 countries with which it has no such treaties or arrangements In cases involving countries which don’t have extradition arrangement, the repatriation depends on decisions made by local authorities
Choksi’s lawyer has alleged he was abducted in Antigua and brought to Dominica by cops from India and Dominica, adding Choksi was tortured
lis a 280 sq km island with a population of less than 100,000 and is one of the two major islands that make up the nation of Antigua and Barbuda
is a 750 sq km island with a population of around 70,000 and is located around 101 nautical miles south of Antigua
Browne told reporters that Choksi should be declared persona non grata and sent to India instead of Antigua & Barbuda, where he has legal and constitution protection as a citizen.
“We asked them (Dominica) not to repatriate him to Antigua. He needs to return to India
MONTSERRAT
GUADELOPE
where he can face the criminal charges levelled against him”, Browne told journalists. Browne added that Choksi had made a monumental error by fleeing to Dominica.
However, acting police chief of Dominica Lincoln Corbette