Mehul Choksi, a fugitive Indian businessman. |Picture source: ANI
His lawyer said the Belgian court (22 April 2025) rejected a bail request from Diamond businessman Mehul Choksi, the main defendant in the 13,000 crore PNB fraud case.
According to an extradition request filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Law Enforcement Bureau (ED), the police arrested in Antwerp on April 12.
His attorney, Vijay Aggarwal, said his client’s bail request was denied at a court hearing Tuesday.
A senior official said Mr Choksi will now file extradition from prison custody.
Mr Choksi, 65, arrived there sometime in November 2023, in Belgium last year on medical treatment.
He has lived in Antigua since leaving India in 2018 and although his Indian citizenship is considered valid, he has occupied citizenship in the Caribbean countries.
Official sources earlier said at least two open arrest warrants issued by Indian agencies in a special court in Mumbai in 2018 and 2021 have been shared by Indian agencies with their Belgian counterparts as part of the extradition request.
Mr Agwal had earlier said that Joxy was “very sick and was receiving cancer treatment”.
Mr Choksi, Nirav Modi, their family and employees, bank officials and others were booked by the CBI and ED in 2018 to commit alleged loan fraud by Brady House Branch of Punjab National Bank (PNB) in Mumbai.
Mr Choksi, his company Gitanjali Gems and others allegedly “committed to deceive the PNB in the crime of deceiving the PNB, deceptively obtained the issuing LOU (Letter of Commitment) and obtained the FLCS (Letter of Credit) (Letter of Credit) (Letter of Credit) without following the prescribed procedures and causing false losses to the bank”.
In this case, the CBI filed at least two charges against him against him, while ED has filed three complaints.
publishing – April 23, 2025 04:35 AM IST
