Antiguan and Barbudan citizen Mehul Choksi has been denied a bid for house arrest in Belgium as he faces a looming extradition hearing linked to one of India’s biggest banking frauds.
The 66-year-old diamond trader, who once headed the Gitanjali jewellery empire, had asked to be confined to a Belgian residence with electronic monitoring. But an appeal court dismissed the request last week, leaving him in custody as preparations intensify for his September hearing.
Choksi left Antigua and Barbuda more than a year ago for medical treatment in Belgium, even as Indian authorities sought his return in connection with the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scandal. He was later arrested there.
India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has already dispatched a team to Brussels, submitting extensive evidence to Belgian prosecutors and exploring the use of a European law firm to strengthen its case.
Choksi and his nephew, Nirav Modi, are accused of siphoning billions of dollars from PNB through fraudulent Letters of Undertaking at the bank’s Mumbai branch. Modi has been jailed in London since 2019 and is still contesting his own extradition.
Indian officials have charged Choksi under corruption and conspiracy laws, while also invoking international treaties on corruption and organised crime. Legal analysts note that Belgium recognises these offences, a factor likely to weigh against him.
For now, the businessman — who obtained Antiguan and Barbudan citizenship through investment — remains in prison in Belgium, with his plea for more lenient conditions rejected and a decisive courtroom battle approaching.
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Call it retribution.
Call it karma.
Call it what you wish.
It has come and caught uo with Choksi.
He survived a failed criminal attempt to take him to India.
He was living his life hassle free in Antigua.
He knows that he was India’s most wanted fugitive.
What on earth could have made him feel so embolden and comfortable that he would board a plane and leave Antigua?
No surgery is a life or death procedure since no man knows the circumstance nor the hour of his calling.
All Cholsi had to do was to sit comfortably on his fortune and live until he dies stress-free in Antigua.
No.
He had to leave his comfortable circumstance and spend his illgotten money.
Well Choksi you have to lay in the bed you have made.
Good luck!!!
Tough luck!!!!
Another ting i wanna add is a point we all missed. some people in Antigua and Barbuda feel that his acquisition of citizenship through the CIP program highlighted weaknesses in vetting and left the country exposed to reputational risk. And that is why our passports under such magnifiying glass from the other countrys. People like choksi cause dis
From Antigua’s perspective, he is still a citizen, and the government has an obligation to safeguard his rights, regardless of international pressure
Critics argue that Belgium should move swiftly. Long legal battles only create loopholes for wealthy fugitives to exploit
For years, Choksi has managed to delay justice. Many see his appeals and medical claims as tactics to avoid facing the charges in India.
Antigua wasn’t chosen by these criminal fugitives randomly, the corruption and penchant for these corrupt politicians to turn a blind eye has a lot to do with many of the Caribbean islands been chosen as safe havens for these criminals.
This is also tied to the jolly beach investment using CIP monies. This is the very reason that this collaboration is a bad move by the Gatson Browne led government, is that the CIP cannot be a trusted venture..90% of the participants in the CIP are criminals in one way or the other.
We need a clean start. Almost all of the money made in Antigua from outside investment, is blood money. Too much dirty hands on this island.
It’s a reason Antigua’s call Antigua “little LA”. Pure corruption.
Damn if he left, damn if he stayed. The cause to expel or expire him was still valid so he preferred to take his chance outside of his adopted home. Don’t castigate Choksi for our passport issues but those who sourced his kind that enable them to build mansions and offer bribes to keep them at the controls.