Mehul Choksi, an Indian businessman has been allegedly charged with criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating and dishonestly including delivery of property, corruption and money laundering. In the PNB money laundering scam, he contended that the Enforcement Directorate has illegally attached his properties without giving any reasonable cause for the same and thus, is without basis. He said that all the allegations by the ED are baseless and false.
Choksi currently holds an Antiguan citizenship and lives there.
On the issue of revocation of his passport, he said that the Indian authorities are at fault because they revoked his passport thus, disabling him from moving anywhere. He also added that he received an email from the authorities, wherein it was stated that his passport has been revoked due to reasons of security threat to India. He also requested the Regional Passport office to revoke the suspension but no response was received and no explanation was offered for the same and thus, he refused to surrender the passport.
The ED attached properties worth Rs. 1200 Crore in connection with the scam and it further asked the Interpol to issue a red corner notice against Choksi. Red Corner notice is a request to locate and provisionally arrest an individual pending extradition. Thus, it helps in speedy extradition. The Interpol has issued the notices against Neerav Modi, his co-accused, his brother, his sister and his executives. The Government of India has also asked the authorities in the Caribbean nation of Antigua to extradite Choksi.
Courtesy/By: Kritika Mehandiratta
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12 Sep 2018
