India / Indian govt sends private jet to Dominica to repatriate Mehul Choksi, pic surfaces

Dominica: A private jet of the Indian government has landed in Dominica on Sunday morning and speculations are rife that the fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi will be soon brought back to India.

Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne said that a private jet currently at the Douglas-Charles Airport in Dominica is from India.

A Qatar Airways private jet landed at the Douglas-Charles airport in Dominica, Antigua News Room reported.

The media outlet reported Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne as saying that the jet came from India carrying necessary documentation needed for the deportation of the businessman.

News agency ANI reported that multiple agencies are in touch with the government of Dominica amid scaled-up efforts to bring back fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi.  

The Dominica authorities have been told that Choksi is originally an Indian citizen and he took on the new citizenship to escape the law in India after having committed a fraud of almost two billion US dollars. 

"It is reliably gathered that India through back-channel and diplomatic route has clearly told Dominica that Mehul Choksi should be treated as a fugitive Indian citizen who has an Interpol Red Corner notice against him and he should be handed over to Indian authorities for deportation and to face the law in India for his alleged deeds which have robbed the Indian public of billions of dollars," the report states.

While Dominica remains non-committal, back-channel pressure may play a crucial role along with Interpol's pressure for Choksi to be handed over to India. 

This is an important period in efforts to bring back the fugitive businessman as he enjoys full legal protection in Antigua and it will be time-consuming to extradite him to India from there. 

Prior Developments In Dominica 

Choksi, who had recently fled from Antigua and Barbuda, was captured in neighbouring Dominica after an Interpol Yellow Notice was issued against him. 

A High Court of Dominica has 'restrained' the extradition of fugitive businessman until further or other hearing of this application is continued until the further hearing of this matter.

The next hearing of the case is scheduled for June 2.

The court's decision came on Friday while it was hearing a habeas corpus plea filed by Choksi's lawyers.

On Saturday, a local media outlet released two photos of fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi while in the custody of the police in Dominica. The photos, released by Chowksi’s lawyer to media, show him behind bars, his eye swollen and arm severely bruised.

The images have surfaced two days after the fugitive diamantaire’s lawyer claimed that he was “forcefully picked up by various people" from Antigua’s Jolly Harbour and taken to Dominica, where he may have been “tortured". His lawyer Vijay Aggarwal had said the 62-year-old businessman has wounds on his body.

Choksi, who is wanted in India by the CBI and the ED for the Rs 13,500 crore PNB loan fraud case, went missing from Antigua and Barbuda on Sunday, sparking a massive manhunt. He was captured in Dominica on Wednesday.

After Choksi was detained, Antigua refused to take him back and Prime Minister Gaston Browne told news agency ANI that the country was in talks with the Dominican as well as Indian governments for his repatriation to India.

Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi allegedly siphoned off the gigantic public money from the state-run bank using fraudulent letters of undertaking.