Fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi captured in Dominica

PTI, May 27, 2021, 7:46 AM IST

New Delhi: Fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi, who had recently fled from Antigua and Barbuda, was captured in neighbouring Dominica after an Interpol Yellow Notice was issued against him, the local media reported on Wednesday.

Police in Dominica captured Choksi on Tuesday night (local time) after an Interpol Yellow Notice was issued by Antigua and Barbuda.

Efforts are on to hand him over to the Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda, the local media reports stated.

Choksi had been living in Antigua and Barbuda since 2018 after taking the citizenship of the country, Antigua News Room reported.

The Yellow Notice is issued by the Interpol to track missing persons.

Choksi, who is wanted in a Rs 13,500 crore loan fraud in the Punjab National Bank, was last seen going for dinner in his car in Antigua and Barbuda on Sunday.

His staff had reported him missing after his car was found.

The businessman’s lawyer Vijay Aggarwal had confirmed that Choksi had been missing since Sunday.

The reports of Choksi gone missing created flutter in the Carribbeans island country after the opposition raised the issue in Antigua and Barbuda Parliament.

Responding to the opposition, Prime Minister Gaston Browne had said that his dispensation was ”collaborating” with the Indian government, neighbouring countries and international police organisations to try and locate Choksi.

”Someone from his household indicated that he is missing. Since then the Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda put out a statement to that effect. That statement will be shared with the Interpol,” he had said.

Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi allegedly siphoned off Rs 13,500 crore of public money from the state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB), using fraudulent letters of undertaking.

Modi is contesting his extradition lodged in a London jail after repeated denial of his bail by courts. Choksi had taken citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda in 2017 using the Citizenship by Investment programme before escaping India in the first week of January 2018. The scam came to light subsequently.

Both are facing a CBI probe.