Mehul Choksi’s Extradition: CBI Coordinates with Belgium

Fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi , who left Antigua and Barbuda last year and was living in Belgium, has been taken into custody at India's request, people familiar with the matter said on Monday. The Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI ) had requested the Belgian government to arrest Choksi before sending an extradition request.

Mehul Choksi's extradition

Choksi's lawyer Vijay Aggarwal told a Mumbai court in February that his client was in Belgium for treatment. The court was hearing a plea by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking to declare Choksi a fugitive under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEOA).

Choksi was arrested on Saturday, an official said. He added that his bail will take time, though the CBI is now in touch with Belgian authorities to execute its extradition request.

Choksi is wanted in India in the Punjab National Bank fraud case
Choksi is wanted in India in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case. An Interpol red notice was issued against him in 2018. It was withdrawn in November 2022, after Choksi approached Interpol, alleging that Indian agents had abducted him on a yacht from Antigua and Barbuda to Dominica in May 2021.

The Indian government sent a team of investigators to secure his deportation from Dominica, where he was not a citizen. Choksi filed a petition in the Dominica High Court alleging abduction and torture.

'Choksi is the mastermind of Rs 13,578 crore loan fraud'
Prosecutors from India filed a request in Dominica in June 2021, alleging that Choksi masterminded a Rs 13,578 crore loan fraud and owed state-owned PNB Rs 7,080 crore ($952 million) and sought to declare him an Indian citizen and deport him.