Mehul Choksi

The agency has communicated to the ministry that it has already written to its counterpart agency in Antigua for the provisional arrest of Choksi, who is the alleged mastermind of the over 2 billion USD bank fraud in the Punjab National Bank.

Environment Minister Ramdas Kadam gave the demolition orders after presiding over a review meeting on illegal bungalows built.

The rise in the level of non-performing assets (NPAs) has consequently led to more public money being injected into government banks to meet capital requirements

Official sources said a team comprising officials from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and other agencies was sent to Antigua a couple of days ago to request the Antiguan authorities to extradite Choksi, wanted in India in the USD 2 billion Punjab National bank scam.

Choksi is wanted in India by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate probing the fraud, the biggest banking scam in the country.

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Choksi was granted citizenship in November, 2017 after a detailed "background check" and "due diligence".

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala was reacting to media reports quoting Antiguan authorities as saying that Indian agencies had no adverse information against Choksi when the Caribbean country conducted a background check on the PNB scam accused before granting him citizenship in 2017.

Choksi's application for citizenship in Antigua in May 2017 was accompanied with clearance from the local police as required by norm, Antiguan paper the Daily Observer reported, citing a statement from the Citizenship by Investment Unit of Antigua and Barbuda.

The communication was received by the CBI in response to their queries seeking whereabouts of Choksi after news of his presence in Antigua surfaced.

Despite claims that applicants are vetted by the Interpol and other regional agencies for a history of criminal conduct, many economic offenders slip through the net to clinch residency permits in tax havens

The order also authorises gathering of documents from these individuals and others such as Ajay Gandhi and Kunal Patel

The Daily Observer today quoted a Cabinet press briefing issued by the Chief of Staff, Lionel "Max" Hurst, to state that Antigua and Barbuda government will make every effort “as per law” to honour a "legitimate" request from India.

Using his Antiguan passport, Choksi can travel to 132 countries, including the UK and the European Union.

The CBI in its communication sent to Antiguan authority last evening cited diffusion notice issued by the Interpol against the fugitive businessman and sought details of his movement and his present location, the source said.

Choksi also faces a threat of extortion by jail staff, and danger to his life by jail inmates if he is brought to India and lodged in a prison here, the application said.

PNB detected a multi-crore scam, wherein diamantaire Nirav Modi and Choksi had allegedly cheated the bank to the tune of Rs 13,400 crore with the purported involvement of a few of its employees

Mehul Choksi said that he never sought to avoid the investigation or the probe agencies and had duly responded to all the communication that he received from the investigating agencies.

The government is strengthening laws to deal with absconding economic offenders such as Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya and aggressively pursuing cases against them in courts abroad, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today.

The directorate, which has been in the thick of action, had last week quizzed Rajasthan Royals co-owner Raj Kundra for over 10 hours in a Rs 2000-crore bitcoin scam.