Mehul Choksi, fugitive diamond merchant and one of the prime-accused in the 2016 PNB fraud worth over Rs 13,500 crore, was arrested by the Belgian police on April 12 after an extradition request by the Indian investigative agencies.
Choksi, along with his nephew Nirav Modi, was part of what turned out to be one of India's biggest banking scams so far. While India awaits his extradition and subsequent trial, here's an interesting fact surrounding the case.
Choksi, who was the owner of the Gitanjali Group, had allegedly conspired with his associates and some PNB officials to get fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LOUs) and Foreign Letters of Credit (FLCs) without following the bank's official procedures. These were then used to raise loans from overseas banks.
Fearing legal trouble, Choksi had acquired citizenship of the Caribbean Island nation of Antigua and Barbuda in 2017. He expected to get a legal foothold in the country which didn’t have an active extradition treaty with India. Subsequently, he fled to the country in 2018, just before the scam was unearthed.
Choksi attempts to flee to Cuba
In 2021, Choksi was detained in Dominica, while allegedly attempting to flee to Cuba by boat. However, his lawyers then claimed that he was forcibly abducted from Antigua and taken to Dominica. As per the fugitive businessmen, he was honeytrapped as part of a larger operation by Indian agents, in order to bring him back to India.
Honeytrap allegations
In his complaint, Choksi said that he had known a person named 'Barbara Jabarica' for one year but later understood that she was part of the so-called 'operation'. He claimed that he was abducted, blindfolded, taken to the rear of Jabarica's house in Antigua and Barbuda and placed on "a very small watercraft". He was later shifted to a "much larger boat", where he saw two Indians on board and three persons of Caribbean descent.
Choksi had further alleged that the Indians onboard had told him that he had been kept under watch for almost a year. "They knew intimate details about my household… where I would walk, my favourite restaurants," Choksi claimed.
The fugitive claimed that he was told he was being taken to a special location to give an interview to a high ranking "Indian Politician" and that his citizenship would be "fixed" in Dominica and that he would be repatriated to India.
'He flirted with me, gifted fake diamond rings': Barbara Jabarica
His rumoured girlfriend Barbara Jabarica meanwhile claimed that she had no role to play in Choksi's abduction and that her name was dragged unnecessarily into the case by the fugitive businessman's lawyers and family members. "I was a friend of Choksi. He introduced himself as Raj and approached me last year during my visit. He became friendly and later started flirting. He also gifted me diamond rings and bracelets that turned out to be fake," she had said.
Dominican authorities arrested Choksi, when he was allegedly trying to flee to Cuba, He was then deported back to Antigua, where he was residing in since 2018.
Also read: Timeline of events since the PNB scam was uncovered
Indian authorities have been trying to extradite the fugitive businessman for long years now. His lawyers continue to challenge India's extradition request, citing his health conditions.
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