Antigua police have started investigation into Mehul Choksi’s ‘kidnapping’: PM Gaston Browne

Prime Minister Gaston Browne told a local media outlet that the Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda has launched an investigation into the alleged kidnapping of Dominica, a neighbor of absconding diamond merchant Mehul Choksi, on a complaint filed by his lawyers. Brown said Choksi’s lawyers gave the police commissioner the names of those involved in the alleged kidnapping in a complaint, the Antigua Newsroom reported. The Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda also said that if the claims are true then this is a serious matter. Brown said police were taking the complaint seriously.

“Choksi has filed a complaint with the Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda that she has been kidnapped. He made a formal claim through his lawyers that he was kidnapped from Antigua and taken to Dominica, so this is a report that the police are taking seriously and they are currently investigating the kidnapping, Brown said. Another report from the Associates Times pierced the theory of Dominica opposition leader Lennox Linton, who reportedly claimed that Choksi was brought to Dominica in Arne’s yacht Calliope around 10 p.m. on 23 May.

Choksi’s family had claimed that he had covered 120 miles in four to five hours as of 5 pm on May 23 in Antigua, which takes about 12-13 hours, the publication said. The report said that according to customs documents, the boat had left Antigua on May 23 at 10 a.m., while Choksi’s domestic staff said he was at his residence by 5 p.m., which indicates that Choksi did not travel by boat, which is claimed by Linton. . It quoted unidentified doctors at the Dominica China Friendship Hospital, where Choksi is admitted, as saying that the nail injury described by his lawyers is old, while other wounds could be new and caused by a “slight push”.

Choksi had mysteriously disappeared from Antigua and Barbuda on 23 May. Where he is residing as a citizen since 2018. He was detained in the neighboring island country of Dominica for illegal entry after a possible romantic getaway with his rumored girlfriend. His lawyers alleged that he was abducted from Antigua’s Jolly Harbor by Antigua and Indian-looking policemen and brought to Dominica on a boat.

Choksi was brought before a Rosso magistrate to answer charges of illegal entry on the orders of the Dominica High Court, where he pleaded not guilty but was denied bail. He was admitted to the Dominica China Friendship Hospital. The Dominica High Court has adjourned the hearing of the habeas corpus petition filed by his lawyers. Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi shook the Indian banking industry in the first week of January 2018 with the Rs 13,500-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam.

The duo had allegedly bribed state-run bank officials to obtain letters of undertaking (LoUs), on the basis of which they took advantage of foreign banks, which remained unpaid. The alleged corrupt officials did not enter into these LoUs in the core banking software of PNB, Thus escaped any scrutiny. Non-payment of these LoUs or bank guarantees of Rs 13,500 crore resulted in default and became a liability on the bank. Modi fled to Europe and was eventually kept in London, where he is contesting his extradition to India, while Choksi took citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda in 2017 where he has been living since fleeing Delhi. .