Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Amid rumors that a woman honey-trapped alleged financial criminal Mehul Choksi to lure him to Dominica, a woman IPS officer from India, Sharda Raut, is leading the CBI team to bring him back from the Caribbean country.
Currently working with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Raut, an IPS officer (2005 batch Maharashtra Cadre), is the investigating officer in the Rs.13,500 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan fraud case. She heads the agency’s Banking Fraud Wing.
She is leading the 8-member team sent to Dominica to bring the fugitive diamantaire, Mehul Choksi, back to India if he is deported. They reached Dominica on May 28 in a private jet from New Delhi via Qatar. The 8-member multi-agency team comprises two officials each from the CBI, Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Reserve Police Force (Commando), and the Ministry of External Affairs. They have already had meetings with Antiguan and Dominican officials, media reported on Wednesday.
If repatriated, Choksi will be formally arrested in Delhi upon reaching India. He had acquired Antiguan citizenship in November 2017 and fled there early in 2018 after the fraud surfaced. He did not complete the due process of surrendering Indian citizenship.
Now the Indian officials’ team has taken with them evidence like copies of his Aadhar Card, passport, and other documents to prove that he continued to be an Indian citizen and that he had hastily acquired Antiguan citizenship solely to escape after the bank fraud. Besides, Interpol was also looking for him and had issued a Red Corner Notice.
His nephew, Nirav Modi, also an accused, is lodged in a London jail. He, too, is fighting against his possible repatriation to India.
Choksi, who mysteriously disappeared on May 23 from Antigua, was found on a beach in Dominica, where he reached by boat. He was arrested and sent to jail last week for allegedly entering the country illegally and trying to escape to Cuba.
He claimed that unknown persons had abducted him from Antigua and thrashed him. He has hired lawyers in Dominica, Antigua, and India and claimed that he was a citizen of Antigua and fighting against his possible extradition to India.
Meanwhile, a media report from Antigua said on Tuesday that Mehul’s brother Chetan Chinubhai Choksi had paid USD 200,000 to Opposition leader Lennox Linton and promised him more than a million dollars in financial assistance in the upcoming general elections, and for raking up the matter in Parliament. Linton has, however, vehemently denied the charges.
On the other hand, Mehul’s wife Priti claimed that he did not abscond but was abducted on a boat to Dominica and that she is unaware of his alleged girlfriend Barbara Jabarika. His car was found on a beach the next day.
In October 2019, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne had accused Choksi of concealing facts and misrepresenting his case for citizenship.