Absconding diamond jeweller Mehul Choksi has been detained in Belgium following an extradition request by Indian probe agencies for his alleged involvement in the ₹13,000 crore-plus Punjab National Bank (PNB) bank loan ‘fraud’ case, official sources said on Monday (April 14).
The 65-year-old was reportedly arrested on Saturday (April 12), and is presently in prison.
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Sources said that after the Interpol Red Notice against him for arrest was “deleted”, Indian agencies, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI, moved for his extradition from Belgium.
The police reportedly referred to two open-ended arrest warrants issued against Mehul Choksi by a court in Mumbai in 2018 and 2021 while arresting him.
Choksi got residency card in Belgium
Choksi has reportedly been living in Antwerp, Belgium with his wife Preeti, a citizen of Belgium, after obtaining a residency card in November 2023 to remain in the country.
According to the Associated Times, a media outlet that reports about the Caribbean region, Choksi submitted fabricated documents, including false declarations and forged papers, to the Belgian officials to obtain a residency card and avoid being extradited to India.
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The Associated Times had reported in March that Indian authorities had requested the Belgian government to begin the process of his extradition to India.
Before moving to Belgium, he had become a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda, an island nation in the West Indies. He was said to have moved from the island to get cancer treatment, and was then discovered on another island in the Caribbeans, Dominica.
Booked in 2018 for loan fraud
Choksi, his nephew and fugitive diamond trader Nirav Modi, and their family members and employees, bank officials, and others were booked by the two agencies in 2018 for perpetrating the alleged loan fraud at the Brady House branch of PNB in Mumbai.
Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi fled India in 2018, weeks before the scam came to light.
Also Read: Restore Red Notice against Choksi: CBI tells Interpol body
ED alleged that Choksi, his firm Gitanjali Gems, and others “committed the offence of cheating against Punjab National Bank in connivance with certain bank officials by fraudulently getting the LOUs (letters of undertaking) issued and got the FLCs (foreign letter of credit) enhanced without following prescribed procedure and caused a wrongful loss to the bank.”
Three charge sheets
The ED has filed three charge sheets against Choksi till now. The CBI too has filed similar charge sheets against him.
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In December 2024, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman informed Parliament that properties to the tune of ₹2,565.90 crores had been restored or sold off to repay the debts of wanted individuals like Choksi.
(With agency inputs)