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- Mehul Choksi plans to fight extradition due to health issues.
- Indian authorities lodged criminal charges in 2018.
- The diamond mogul refutes any wrongdoing in the fraud case.
NEW DELHI: Fugitive jeweler Mehul Choksi has been apprehended in Belgium, according to a source from India’s Enforcement Directorate, a full seven years after his involvement in one of India’s most significant bank fraud cases became known.
Prior to his arrest, the Indian government had requested Choksi’s extradition, but he is expected to contest this request on health grounds, the source noted.
Punjab National Bank (PNB), the second-largest state-owned lender in India by assets, revealed in 2018 that it had uncovered a suspected fraud amounting to $1.8 billion at a branch in Mumbai.
The bank subsequently filed a criminal complaint with India’s federal investigative agency, implicating several parties, including billionaire jeweler Nirav Modi and Choksi, who is his uncle and the managing director of Gitanjali Gems, claiming they conned PNB.
Indian federal law enforcement has charged Choksi, Nirav Modi, and others with fraud linked to alleged illicit financial transactions that resulted in massive losses for PNB.
Both diamond magnates have denied any allegations of misconduct.
In a statement from 2018, Choksi claimed that the “investigative agencies were operating with a biased approach and interfering with the justice process.”
As of Monday, Reuters was unable to reach his attorney for immediate comment.
Nirav Modi escaped India in 2018 before the specifics of his alleged involvement became public knowledge. He was arrested in the UK in 2019 and is still in custody, having lost one extradition appeal.
Recently, a Pakistani-Canadian businessman accused of playing a role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks was extradited to New Delhi by the U.S., marking a significant event in terrorism-related extraditions.
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