NEW DELHI: According to officials, Choksi was aware of the criminal charges against him before he applied for citizenship by investment.
Wanted fugitive Mehul Choksi, who is residing in Antigua and Barbuda, had taken the citizenship of the country of Antigua and Barbuda on 26 April 2017. This date becomes crucial as a criminal case against him was registered in India in July 2016 on the order of a Delhi court based on a complaint filed by a group of individuals who had purchased a retail franchise of Gitanjali Jewellers from Choksi to open a shop in Rajouri Garden in Delhi in 2013, but received third grade diamonds after depositing Rs 1.5 crore.
Choksi, an accused in the Rs 15,000 crore Punjab National Bank scam had fled India in January 2018 and eventually landed in Antigua and Barbuda, of which he had already taken citizenship by the investment route under the Antigua and Barbuda Citizenship Act, more than one and a half years before he actually left India.
Significantly, under Section 8 of the Antigua and Barbuda Citizenship Act, “false representation or fraud or wilful concealment of material facts” is a ground for the cancellation of citizenship. Further, failure to reveal the existence of such a charge automatically results in the rejection of the application for citizenship.
In Choksi’s case, both these conditions were violated as he was an accused in a court-mandated police investigation in India before he applied for his Antiguan citizenship and he had not revealed the same in his application to Antigua and Barbuda.
According to officials of Antigua and Barbuda, Choksi was aware of the criminal charges against him before he applied for the country’s citizenship by investment.
This has been revealed in the submission made by Antigua and Barbuda while responding to a petition filed by Choksi at The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), a regional body made up of all 35 nations in North and South America including the United States of America and Canada. The IACHR works to enforce international treaties and human rights agreements.
Choksi has dragged both Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica to the court alleging that his human rights have been violated by local officials of these two countries.
Strangely, it was only on 7 December 2018 that Indian officials sent a request to their counterparts in Antigua and Barbuda, seeking extradition of Choksi, almost 11 months after the Punjab National Bank (PNB) had filed a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation apprising them of the scam on 29 January 2018.
Subsequently, on 12 December 2018, the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) issued a Red Notice (Control No. A-12905/12-2018) against Choksi for money laundering on the request of Indian officials. The said RCN was revoked by INTERPOL four years later, on 21 December 2022.
Why did the officials at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the nodal agency that deals with extradition and INTERPOL, take 11 months to inform the Antiguan authorities as claimed by Antigua and Barbuda in its submission, is a matter of probe in Delhi, something that was never initiated. Choksi fled India in January, FIR was filed by PNB in the same month, but an official request was received by Antigua only in December.
If the resourceful Choksi, who was likely informed about the registration of the FIR by the CBI well in advance that allowed him to flee India days later, was helped by a few officials who deliberately did not formally raise the issue with Antigua for 11 months, is a matter of investigation. This too was not looked into.
Choksi, who is using legal tactics to buy time and keep delaying his possible extradition to India in the hope that the matter will be forgotten, has filed a series of cases to delay his extradition in every possible forum, including the IACHR which does not hold a judicial power but can put “soft” pressure on member countries to not to push for his extradition.
Choksi has filed three different cases in Antigua and Barbuda, to conduct an effective investigation into his alleged abduction, which he alleges was done by Indian intelligence agencies, another case to challenge the constitutionality of the extradition process against him, and another petition challenging the constitutionality of the citizenship revocation process that was initiated against him.
These three cases were filed in September 2018, January 2020, and February 2022.
With the deep financial resources at his disposal, Choksi has employed impactful public relation firms, high paying lawyers and law firms that he is using to buy or silence the media from writing against him which explains the sharp reduction in stories on him by the media on him.
Even if Choksi gets an unfavourable order in the cases that he has filed before the High Court, it would not be a final determination since Choksi has the right to appeal to the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal and, to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England.