{"id":129966,"date":"2021-05-31T20:26:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T00:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=129966"},"modified":"2021-05-31T22:36:22","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T02:36:22","slug":"antigua-denies-plot-with-dominica-pm-to-send-choksi-back-to-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/antigua-denies-plot-with-dominica-pm-to-send-choksi-back-to-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Antigua PM denies plot with Dominica PM to send Choksi back to India"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Prime Minister Gaston Browne categorically denied that his government was involved in or had prior knowledge of the alleged abduction of Mehul Choksi, calling the suggestion \u201cutter nonsense.\u201d<\/p>

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\u201cLet me state here that even though Choksi\u2019s citizenship was unsettled, we respected his legal and constitutional rights as a citizen, and we did nothing to abridge those rights whist he was on Antiguan and Barbudan soil,\u201d Browne told Observer Media on Monday.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister said if his country was \u201cdesperate\u201d to get rid of Choksi, \u201cthe\u00a0better option would have been to have the Indians come here, bring a plane and pack him on the plane and send him back to India.\u201d<\/p>

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\u201cI can assure you that he would not be in Dominica today. He would be back on Indian soil and the discussion would have been taking place after he would have arrived back on Indian soil,\u201d he said.<\/p>

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\u201cI do accept that in that case we would have violated his legal and constitutional rights and that is why we would not have given any such consideration,\u201d Browne added.<\/p>\n

He explained that \u201cno consideration was ever given to that but I\u2019m just saying it would have been a safer bet, a better option, to violate his constitutional rights here and have him repatriated to India rather than abducting him or participating in any abduction.\u201d<\/p>

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The Indian diamantaire, who became a citizen of Antigua & Barbuda through its Citizenship by Investment Programme, claimed he was kidnapped and taken to Dominica against his will last week.<\/p>\n

Before he ended up in Dominica, Choksi utilised the court system in Antigua & Barbuda to challenge efforts by the government to revoke his citizenship and extradite him to India to face fraud charges.<\/p>

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Must all read:<\/p>

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Linton says Choksi was removed from Antigua with the help of Dominica to by-pass ongoing extradition proceedings<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n