Tag: Mehul

Mehul Choksi wins in Antigua and Barbuda’s court

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Roseau: Mehul Choksi, the diamantaire who is wanted in India in connection with Rs 13000 crore fraud cannot be removed from Antigua and Barbuda, the country’s High Court said Friday as it gave the ruling in his favour.
The claimant, Mehul Choksi in his civil lawsuit has argued that there is an obligation on the part of the defendants, the Attorney General of Antigua and the Chief of Police to carry out a thorough inquiry and that he has an arguable claim that he was subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Dominica based Nature Isle News reported.
Demanding an investigation into his claims, Choksi has sought relief which includes a declaration that suggests he is entitled to a prompt and thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding his forcible removal from Antigua and Barbuda on or about May 23, 2021.

The court order has prohibited the removal of the Claimant, Mehul Choksi from Antigua and Barbuda’s territory without a High Court ruling following an inter party hearing and subject to the Claimant (Mehul Choksi) exhausting all available legal remedies, including appeals.
“Further or in the alternative, a Declaration that the first Defendant is to establish an independent, judicial inquiry as to the circumstances of the Claimant (Mehul Choksi)’s forcible abduction and removal from the jurisdiction of Antigua and Barbuda on or around 23 May 2021. A Declaration that the second Defendant has a duty to confirm to the Dominican police that the evidence supports that the Claimant was forcibly removed from the jurisdiction and taken to Dominica against his will,” the court order read.
“An Order that the Claimant may not be caused to leave and/or be removed from the jurisdiction of Antigua and Barbuda without an order from the High Court after an inter partes hearing and subject to the Claimant exhausting any appeals or other legal relief provided by law. An Order that the second Defendant releases the statement taken by its officers from the Claimant on 15 August 2021,” it read further.
The defendants, on the other hand, argued that there is no valid complaint that exposes a cause of action for any failure to carry out an “effective” and “rapid” investigation within the scope of the jurisdiction under section 7 of the Constitution.
According to Nature Isle News, the defendant also claimed that the claim was frivolous, vexatious, and an abuse of the court’s process.

Collusion, forced abduction, removal from Antigua and Barbuda, assault, and battery are among the incidents detailed in the Claimant Mehul Choksi’s affidavits in support of the claim.
The Claimant was forcibly transported to the Commonwealth of Dominica aboard a boat, as per the report of Nature Isle News.
According to the claimant’s evidence, he asked to consult with his lawyers at the time he was approached by the individuals, but that request was denied.
The 63-year-old diamantaire is wanted in India in connection with a Rs 13,000-crore fraud in the Punjab National Bank (PNB).
CBI in its statement said that it remains committed to returning fugitives and criminals to India to face the process of criminal justice.
“Systematic steps have been initiated in close coordination with foreign law enforcement agencies for geo-locating and return of wanted criminals and economic offenders. In the last 15 months, over 30 wanted criminals have returned to India,” it read.
CBI said that a case was registered against Mehul Choksi and others on February 15, 2018, for defrauding Punjab National Bank.
Subsequently in 2022, CBI registered five more criminal cases against Mehul Choksi and others for defrauding banks and financial institutions.
In 2018, wanted criminal Mehul Chinubhai Choksi approached the Commission for Control of INTERPOL’s Files (CCF) making a request for the non-publication of a Red Notice.
“CCF is a separate body within INTERPOL that is not under the control of INTERPOL Secretariat and is mainly staffed by elected lawyers from different countries. CCF had studied his request and consulted CBI. CCF dismissed representation of Mehul Chinubhai Choksi and INTERPOL published a Red Notice,” CBI stated.
The agency said that INTERPOL had only published a Red notice against wanting to accuse Mehul Chinubhai Choksi in December 2018 at the request of CBI and ED.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 15, 2023
CBI files fresh chargesheet against Mehul Choksi

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New Delhi: Months after Interpol removed a Red Corner Notice (RCN) against fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi, the CBI has filed a fresh chargesheet against him for allegedly pledging lab-grown diamonds valued at 98 percent less than what was projected for getting a loan of Rs 25 crore from the IFCI in 2016, officials said.
In its chargesheet filed before a special CBI court in Mumbai recently, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleged that Choksi’s firm Gitanjali Gems took the loan from the Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI) by pledging 896 pieces of studded jewellery, which were valued at more than Rs 45 crore by government-approved valuers.
Once the loan account turned a non-performing asset (NPA), the IFCI moved to realise the pledged jewellery, but came to a rude shock after fresh valuations showed that their value was 98 percent less than what was projected at the time of applying for the loan, the officials said.
The fresh valuation done by the IFCI pegged the value of the jewellery in the range of Rs 70 lakh to Rs 2 crore, the chargesheet said.
“The valuers said the diamonds are of low quality and are lab-prepared chemical vapour diamonds and other inferior colour stones and not real gem stones. Accordingly, the account of Gitanjali Gems Limited was declared as fraud on November 30, 2018,” the chargesheet accessed by PTI said.
The opinion of the valuers gathered by the CBI during the probe also put the value of 896 pieces of jewellery in the range of Rs 69.32 lakh to Rs 76.99 lakh, the officials said.
The CBI recently filed a chargesheet against Gitanjali Gems, its former director and guarantor Choksi, government-approved valuers Narendra Jhaveri, Pradip C Shah, Shrenik Shah and Keyur Mehta, assistant vice-president of the company Vipul Chitalia and its assistant general manager Aniyath Shivraman Nair, they said.
Giving details of the money trail, the federal agency alleged that Rs 25 crore received by Gitanjali Gems on September 30, 2016 from the IFCI were diverted to Premier Intertrade through a cheque signed by Chitalia and Nair on the same day.

It alleged that the company, Premier Intertrade, existed only on paper with dummy partners and employees of Gitanjali Gems as signatories.
The whole amount was reverted to Gitanjali Gems in three tranches, the CBI said, adding that the entire exercise was carried out to change the “colour of the money”.
Choksi allegedly used Rs 20 crore to settle the foreign letter of credit (FLC) issued in favour of Hong Kong-based 4C’s Diamonds Distributors. The investigation showed that the Hong Kong-based firm was also controlled by Choksi and had no genuine business transactions with Gitanjali Gems.
The money was again routed back to Gitanjali Gems, the agency alleged.
The remaining Rs 5 crore were used to repay a fraudulent letter of undertaking (LoU) in the Punjab National Bank (PNB), discharge outstanding liabilities of Gitanjali Gems and towards miscellaneous expenses, the CBI alleged.
An independent body of lawyers under Interpol — the Commission for Control of Interpol’s Files (CCF) — removed Choksi’s name from theN list in November 2022 and it came as a major setback to the CBI. The removal of the notice means Choksi can now freely travel out of Antigua and Barbuda, where he is holed up after fleeing from India in 2018.
Choksi is accused of siphoning off more than Rs 6,344.96 crore from the PNB, using fraudulent LoUs and FLCs.
Officials at the PNB’s Brady House branch in Mumbai issued 165 LoUs and 58 FLCs during March-April 2017, against which 311 bills were discounted.
These LoUs and FLCs were allegedly issued to Choksi’s firms without any sanctioned limit or cash margin and without making entries in the bank’s central banking system to evade any scrutiny in case of a default.
LoUs are a guarantee given by a bank on behalf of its clients to a foreign bank. If a client does not repay to the foreign bank, the liability falls on the guarantor bank.
Based on these LoUs issued by the PNB, money was lent by State Bank of India-Mauritius, Allahabad Bank-Hong Kong, Axis Bank-Hong Kong, Bank of India-Antwerp, Canara Bank-Mamana and SBI-Frankfurt.
“Since the accused companies did not repay the amount availed against the said fraudulent LoUs and FLCs, the PNB made the payment of Rs 6,344.97 crore (USD 965.18 million), including the overdue interest, to the overseas banks, which had advanced buyer’s credit and discounted the bills against the fraudulent LoUs and FLCs issued by the PNB,” the CBI’s supplementary chargesheet in the PNB bank fraud case had alleged.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 28, 2023
Economic fugitives should face justice: MEA on Mehul Choksi

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New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs on Friday reiterated that economic fugitives like Mehul Choksi should face justice.
Speaking at a weekly media briefing, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, “On the issue of Mehul Choksi. Look, I use the word, you know, red corner notice. Yes, let me just take the larger name. Our focus is on getting economic fugitives to face justice in India. And we will continue specific issues in today’s regarding red corner notice. Otherwise, look, I have to direct you to the concern. I think they issued a detailed press release. I really don’t have anything to add to that.”
Notably, Interpol revoked the Red Corner list against Mehul Choksi. The removal from the Interpol database of Red Notices will make the fugitive diamantaire eligible to travel at will to any other country, apart from India where he faces multiple cases, according to government sources.
However, the sources said the removal of the Red Corner Notice by the global police body against Choksi will have no bearing on the Punjab National Bank scam case, which is already at an advanced stage.
Red Corner Notices are issued against fugitives and are considered as a request to law enforcement agencies across the world to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.
The 63-year-old diamantaire is wanted in India in connection with a Rs 13,000-crore fraud in the Punjab National Bank (PNB).
Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday said that it remains in active communication with Commission for Control of INTERPOL’s Files (CCF) and other bodies in INTERPOL after it removed the Red Corner Notice against Mehul Choksi.

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#Economic #fugitives #face #justice #MEA #Mehul #Choksi
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 25, 2023
Gautam Adani, Mehul Choksi best friends of BJP : Mamata Banerjee

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Kolkata: A day after the removal of Mehul Choksi’s name from Interpol’s Red Corner notice list, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday alleged that businessmen Gautam Adani and fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi are the “best friends” of the BJP-led government at the Centre and saffron party was working only for these people.
Hitting out at the BJP government, the TMC supremo also said that banks have no money and people are not getting their payments even after working for the 100 days’ work scheme.
“… The country is run by only a few people. Banks are totally penniless and the Centre is not giving money for the 100 days’ work scheme (MGNREGA). But these people (Adani and Choksi) have collected lots of funds,” she claimed.
LIC, she told reporters at the airport here, has “become zero”.
The state-run insurance company had invested in shares of the Adani-led group companies, whose share prices plummeted after the Hindenburg Research report.
“Now Adani and Mehul are BJP’s best friends. The BJP-led government at the Centre is working for them and that will become their minus TRP,” she said before leaving for a three-day trip to neighbouring Odisha to offer prayers at the Puri Jagannath Temple.
The International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) has removed the name of fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi , who is wanted in a Rs 13,000-crore scam in the Punjab National Bank (PNB), from the Red Corner List on the basis of his plea.

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#Gautam #Adani #Mehul #Choksi #friends #BJP #Mamata #Banerjee
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 21, 2023
Telangana: KTR slams BJP for Mehul Choksi’s name drop from Interpol list

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Hyderabad: Telangana IT minister KT Rama Rao on Tuesday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party for the diamantaire Mehul Choksi’s removal from the Interpol database of Red Notices and asked if there was a ‘special exemption for fraudsters from Gujarat’.
He tweeted and said that “Modi hai toh mumkin hai” alleging that prime minister Narendra Modi was behind the letting off of Choksi.
Referring to a video clip where the prime minister was seen addressing Mehul Choksi as “Hamare Mehul Bhai”, the Telangana minister tweeted, “Mehul Choksi Bhai, Yet Another cousin of Raja Satya Harishchandra who only committed a small bank fraud of ₹13,500 Crore given an NoC allowing him to travel Scot-free”
In a major setback to Indian probe agencies, the Interpol removed fugitive Mehul Choksi, accused of committing an Rs 11,356.84 crore loan fraud case with the Punjab National Bank (PNB), from its ‘red’ notice list.
Choksi was added to the red notice list in December 2018. As per sources, authorities concerned with the Indian government objected to the move of Interpol but it didn’t budge on the decision.
Is there a special exemption for All Fraudsters from Gujarat?
“Mehul Choksi Bhai”, Yet Another cousin of Raja Satya Harishchandra who only committed a small bank fraud of ₹13,500 Crore given an NoC allowing him to travel Scot-free 👏#ModiHaiTohMumkinHai #AMitrKaal
— KTR (@KTRBRS) March 21, 2023
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#Telangana #KTR #slams #BJP #Mehul #Choksis #drop #Interpol #list
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 21, 2023
‘Modani Model’: Cong slams Mehul Choksi’s name drop from Interpol list

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New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday hit out at the BJP-led government over fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi’s removal from the Interpol database of Red Notices, saying while the Opposition was being targeted by the Enforcement Directorate and CBI, its “friend” was being let off.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said talk of patriotism by those giving “protection” to such people is a “joke”.
In a tweet, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said, “‘Vipaksh ko ED, CBI, Mitr ko rihaai’ (ED, CBI for the Opposition, let off for friend).”
विपक्ष को ED-CBI, मित्र को रिहाई!
‘मोडानी मॉडल’ मतलब पहले लूटो, फिर बिन सज़ा के छूटो। pic.twitter.com/t0LGDWRcso
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 21, 2023
“‘Modani’ model matlab pehle looto, phir bin sazaa ke chooto’ (Modani model means first loot and then go scott-free without punishment),” he said.
Speaking with reporters before leaving for Parliament, Kharge said, “They are doing things to divert attention from real issues. Our embassies are being attacked. People who have run away with money from banks, Mehul Choksi, those giving protection to such people talk about patriotism, it is a joke.” the Congress president told reporters before leaving for Parliament.
“We will ask the government to clarify on this,” he said.
Choksi, wanted in a Rs 13,000-crore scam in the Punjab National Bank, is understood to have been removed from the Interpol database of Red Notices on the basis of his plea to the Lyon-headquartered agency, people in the know of the development had said.
Earlier in a tweet in Hindi, Kharge said, “ED-CBI for opposition leaders but release from Interpol for ‘our Mehul bhai’ of Modi ji. When Parliament can be stalled for ‘best friend’, then how can help for the ‘old friend ‘ be denied who absconded five years ago”.

“Thousands of crores of the country were lost and ‘Na khaane doonga’ became another ‘jumla’,” the Congress chief also said.
On the BJP’s attack on Rahul Gandhi, Kharge told reporters that the question of an apology doesn’t arise.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday charged that Gandhi is the present day Mir Jafar of Indian polity.
“It would not be an aberration to say that Rahul Gandhi is a present day Mir Jafar of Indian polity. What he has done in London is the same thing that Mir Jafar did,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told a press conference
Parliament has remained paralysed due to protests from rival sides.
While the BJP has demanded an “unambiguous apology” from Gandhi for his remarks in the UK that democracy in India is “under attack”, several opposition parties have accused the government that it does not want Parliament to function and is finding ways to divert attention from their demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe (JPC) into allegations against the Adani Group.

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#Modani #Model #Cong #slams #Mehul #Choksis #drop #Interpol #list
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 21, 2023
Mehul Choksi’s name removed from Interpol’s ‘red’ notice list

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New Delhi: In a major setback to Indian probe agencies, the Interpol removed fugitive Mehul Choksi, accused of committing a Rs 11,356.84 crore loan fraud case with the Punjab National Bank (PNB), fron its ‘red’ notice list.
Choksi was added to red notice list in December 2018. As per sources, authorities concerned of the Indian government objected to the move of Interpol but it didn’t budge on the decision
This is a setback to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) which were waiting for his deportation.
However, officials probing the matter said that it will not much affect Choksi’s extradition from Antigua.
Choksi is currently in the Caribbean island nation and Indian authorities have asked Antiguan authorities to extradite him so that he could be prosecuted.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 20, 2023