Team sent to bring back Choksi to India departs Dominica, heads home

India's multi-agency team that had gone to Dominica to bring back Mehul Choksi is headed back home on a Qatar Airways private jet after the island nation's high court adjourned the hearing on the fugitive diamantaire's habeas corpus petition, sources said.

Publicly available flight data showed that the jet took off from the Melville Hall Airport in Dominica at 8.09 PM (local time) on June 3 and is travelling towards Madrid.

The multi-agency team of officials is also returning, the sources said.

The team led by CBI DIG Sharda Raut was stationed in Dominica for nearly seven days to bring back Choksi, who is wanted in the Rs 13,500-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, to India.

On Thursday, the Dominica High Court adjourned the hearing on Choksi's habeas corpus petition.

Read | Antigua and Barbuda prefers repatriation of Choksi from Dominica to India directly, as per local media

A habeas corpus petition is filed for producing before a court a person who is under arrest or in unlawful detention.

It is likely that the next hearing may take place after a month and the businessman will remain in Dominica, local media reported.

Judge Bernie Stephenson will decide the next date of hearing after meeting both sides, media outlet Antigua News Room said.

The adjournment is to allow lawyers of Choksi and the Dominica government "to agree on the language to be used with respect to the injunction filed to prevent his removal from Dominica", it said.

Thursday's hearing was conducted through videoconferencing with a group of protesters standing outside the High Court building in Roseau carrying placards with messages seeking to know the truth about the controversy.

Also Read | India steadfast in resolve to bring fugitives back to country, says MEA on Mehul Choksi issue

"Who brought Choksi to Dominica?" read one of the placards, the photo of which was published by many media outlets.

The judge had on Wednesday ordered production of Choksi before the magistrate to face charges of illegal entry into Dominica.

The 62-year-old wheelchair-bound diamantaire, who has a pending Interpol Red Notice against him, arrived before presiding Roseau Magistrate Court in black shorts and a blue T-shirt from the Dominica-China Friendship Hospital, where he is undergoing treatment. His application for bail was rejected.

Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi had fled India in the first week of January 2018, weeks before the PNB scam rocked the Indian banking industry.

The duo allegedly bribed officials of the state-run bank to get Letters of Undertaking (LoU) on the basis of which they availed loans from overseas banks that remained unpaid.

Also Read | Mehul Choksi’s wife breaks silence on ‘mystery woman’, says she fears for his life

The allegedly corrupt bank officials did not enter these LoUs in the core banking software of PNB, thus evading scrutiny. The non-payment of these LoUs or bank guarantees worth Rs 13,500 crore resulted in default and became a liability on the bank.

Choksi had mysteriously gone missing on May 23 from Antigua and Barbuda, where he has been staying since 2018 as a citizen since he fled Delhi.

He was detained in neighbouring island country Dominica for illegal entry after a possible romantic escapade with his rumoured girlfriend.

His lawyers alleged that he was kidnapped from Jolly Harbour in Antigua by policemen looking like Antiguan and Indian and brought to Dominica on a boat.

Modi escaped to Europe and was finally held in London, where he is contesting his extradition to India. Choksi took the citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda in 2017.