How Indian agencies hunted down fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi
Belgian police acted swiftly on inputs provided by Indian officials after it became clear Choksi was trying to flee to Switzerland for cancer treatment
The arrest of fugitive diamond trader Mehul Choksi is the result of a massive hunt by Indian agencies, including the CBI and the ED, which had been running a covert operation and closely tracking his movements across the globe over the last seven years.
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The Gitanjali Group owner is accused of a Rs 12,636 crore fraud at the state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) along with his nephew Nirav Modi, his wife Ami Modi, and his brother Neeshal Modi. 65-year-old Choksi fled India in 2018, shortly before the massive fraud came to light. He flew to Antigua, where he had taken citizenship through the investment programme, complicating India’s bid to bring him to justice.
How he was nabbed
The Indian agencies came to know last year that Choksi was in Belgium and they promptly alerted the authorities there, sharing a comprehensive dossier detailing his role in the massive bank fraud.
Belgian police acted swiftly on inputs provided by Indian officials after it became clear Choksi was trying to flee to Switzerland for cancer treatment, said media reports. Interestingly, Choksi's wife Preeti is a Belgian citizen.
According to reports, Choksi submitted fabricated documents to get an F residency card from Belgium in November last year. He falsely cited humanitarian grounds and critical medical conditions to gain the residency. He also concealed that he was a citizen of India and Antigua. Earlier, in February, Choksi’s lawyer told a Mumbai court that he cannot return to India because he was in Belgium for blood cancer treatment.
Indian officials swung into action when they came to know that Choksi had applied for an upgrade to an F+ residency card, which would have made extradition significantly more challenging. In response, Belgian authorities suspended the conversion process and arrested Choksi in Antwerp on the basis of two non-bailable warrants issued by a Mumbai court in 2018 and 2021.
The ED and CBI are now preparing to initiate formal extradition proceedings in Belgium.
Appeal against extradition
Currently lodged in a Belgian jail, Choksi’s bail hearing is expected to take place after a week. His lawyer Vijay Agarwal said his client was taken into custody by the Belgian police on Saturday (April 12).
“At the moment, he is in prison and there (Belgium), the procedure is not to apply for bail but file an appeal. During that appeal, request is made that he should not be kept in detention and he should be permitted to defend himself and oppose the extradition request while not being in custody,” Agarwal told reporters.
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He said the “obvious” grounds for the appeal would be that Choksi is “not a flight risk, is extremely sick and undergoing treatment for cancer”. He said their legal defence would be that this is a “political case and the human condition (in Indian prisons) was not good”.
This is not Choksi’s first run-in with international law enforcement. In 2021, he was arrested in the Dominican Republic for illegal entry, leading to a dramatic sequence of legal battles. A CBI team was dispatched to secure his extradition, but his lawyers successfully argued for his return to Antigua for medical reasons. The British Queen’s Privy Council later ruled in his favour, and he was flown back to Antigua after spending 51 days in jail.