No role in ‘abduction’, says Mehul Choksi's rumoured girlfriend
'I have nothing to do with his kidnapping. My name is being dragged by Mehul Choksi’s lawyers and family members. Me and my family are under stress.'
The woman reported to be the girlfriend of Mehul Choksi has said she had no role in the alleged abduction of the fugitive jeweller who is wanted in India in the $1.4 billion PNB fraud case.
Barbara Jarabica told India Today in an interview that Choksi had approached her last year and introduced himself as “Raj”. He became “friendly” and later started flirting with her, she said.
“I have nothing to do with his kidnapping. My name is being dragged by Mehul Choksi’s lawyers and family members. Me and my family are under stress,” she said. “I was a friend of Choksi. Choksi introduced himself as Raj and approached me last year during my visit. He became friendly and later started flirting. He also gifted me diamond rings and bracelets that turned out to be fake.”
Also read: Dominica denies bail to Choksi; wife says jeweller feared for life
In a kidnapping complaint lodged with Antigua police on June 2, Choksi claimed that “the operation” to send him back to India did not go according to plan and that he was told by the crew of the boat on which he was taken – two Indians and three Antiguans – that an “Indian politician” would interview him when he arrived in Dominica.
The complaint, filed through his legal team, said Choksi had known Jarabica for about a year and detailed her role in the “operation” by “Indian agents”.
Choksi had allegedly gone to meet Barbara Jarabica on May 23 before he went missing. He has been in judicial custody in Dominica since May 24, charged with illegally entering the country.
According to Choksi, he was abducted, blindfolded and taken behind Jabarica’s house in Antigua and Barbuda and placed on “a very small watercraft”. He was later moved to a “much larger boat”, he said.
