Interpol Withdraws Red Corner Notice Against Mehul Choksi, Setback For CBI

According to people who know about the development, Mehul Choksi, a wanted fugitive in connection with a Rs 13,000 crore Punjab National Bank fraud scheme, is said to have had his name removed from the Interpol database of Red Notices as a result of his appeal to the Lyon-based organisation. However, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) stayed mum on the development. A spokesperson for the diamantaire claimed that Choksi’s allegations of kidnapping during his stay in Antigua were strengthened by Interpol’s decision to remove the Red Notice.

According to the lawyer Vijay Aggarwal, the decision of Interpol came after the efforts of the legal team and genuine claim of the ‘kidnapping’ of my client Mehul Choksi. He added further, “Ultimate truth has prevailed. As the kidnapping attempt of my client is not proved by the International community, RCN issued against my client by Interpol has been removed.”

Mehul Choksi is wanted in India in connection with the Rs 13,500 crore fraud concerning Punjab National Bank. Advocate Raleigh alleged that in June 2021, Indian authorities kidnapped him from Antigua and forcibly transported him to Dominica. The fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi, who was accused of illegal entrance by the police, also received a significant stay of execution from the Commonwealth of Dominica last year. The prosecution of Dominica decided to end the ongoing judicial proceedings in the matter of his alleged illegal entry.

The notice is now unavailable on Interpol’s website. Red Corner Notice is removed following a petition by Mehul Choksi to Interpol. However, CBI who is investigating the case declined to comment on this. 

Choksi left India in January 2018. By that time, he had become a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda, Days before the CBI filed a case against him and his nephew Nirav Modi in the PNB scam. Choksi’s family and attorneys claim that on May 23, 2021, two men named Gurmit Singh and Gurjeet Bhandal abducted Choksi using a Hungarian woman they identified as Babara Jarabic and transported him to Dominica aboard a yacht. On the flight to Dominica, Choksi allegedly received threats and was urged to sign a release authorising his return to India. 

Director of Public Prosecutions (AG) in a reply filed on May 17, 2022, to the Magistrate Court informed that “‘Mehul Chinubhai Choksi’ was charged, for that he, on the 24th day of May 2021 at Toucarie Bay, Toucarie in the Parish of St. John, in the Commonwealth of Dominica, did enter Illegally into the Commonwealth of Dominica at a place to wit “Toucarie Bay, Toucarie” not approved as a point of entry”.

The reply of the Director of Prosecutions further states that “Under the provisions of Section 72(2) (c) of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Dominica, I do hereby discontinue the above-mentioned proceedings against the said, ‘Mehul Chinubhai Choksi’”. Earlier, when the Dominica High Court granted Mehul Choksi interim release based on his physical condition, Vijay Aggarwal stated that all ongoing legal actions relating to Choksi’s illegal entry will be put on hold until he is deemed healthy enough to return to Dominica. Nonetheless, he continued, “in our opinion, there was a case of forced entry, not illegal access.”

The CBI booked Choksi in a fresh case of loan fraud, in December last year. In the new case, he has been accused of defrauding and diverting loan funds to the tune of over Rs 6,700 crore.