- Mehul Choksi to challenge extradition on medical grounds.
- Indian officials filed criminal allegations in 2018.
- Diamond tycoon denies wrongdoing in case of fraud.
New Delhi: A source in India’s Enforcement Directorate said that fugitive Johri Mehul Choksi has been arrested in Belgium. RootsIn one of India’s largest bank fraud, they became public seven years after their participation details.
The source said that the Government of India had sent a request for extradition of Choksi before his arrest, but he is likely to challenge it on medical grounds.
The second largest state-driven lender of India, Punjab National Bank (PNB) announced in 2018 that it discovered alleged $ 1.8 billion fraud at the same branch in Mumbai.
The bank had filed a criminal complaint against several institutions with India’s federal investigative agency, which included billionaire jeweler Nirav Modi and Choksi, his uncle and managing director of Gitanjali Ratna, saying he had cheated PNB.
The Indian federal police filed allegations of fraud against Choksi, Nirav Modi and others, which were in connection with suspicious participation in fraud transactions, causing heavy losses to PNB.
Two diamond tycoon has denied any wrongdoing.
Choksi said in a letter in 2018 that “the investigation agencies were working with the pre-determined brain and intervening during justice.”
Roots On Monday, he was unable to contact his lawyer immediately.
Nirav Modi fled to India in 2018, before the details of his alleged role in the case became public. He was arrested in UK in 2019 and remains in custody there, although he has lost a extradition appeal.
Last week, a Pakistani -born Canadian businessman accused of helping the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, when the US extradited them in such a transfer in the first such transfer in the case of terrorism.
