New Delhi:
Fugitive diamond trader Mehul Choksi, wanted in connection with the Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan fraud case, has been arrested by the police in Belgium, sources in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) confirmed this morning. The 65-year-old was reportedly arrested on Saturday and is currently in jail.
The police referred to two open-ended arrest warrants issued against Choksi by a Mumbai court while placing him under arrest, Economic Times reported. These were dated May 23, 2018, and June 15, 2021.
He is expected to seek bail and an immediate release, citing ill health and other reasons.
Choksi and his nephew, Nirav Modi, who is awaiting extradition from London, are wanted by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for allegedly defrauding the bank of more than Rs 13,500 crore in 2018.
The PNB – the country’s second largest bank – had filed a criminal complaint against several entities, including Choksi, Modi and the managing director of his firm, Gitanjali Gems.
They allegedly used letters of undertaking (LoUs) and foreign letters of credit (FLCs) by bribing officials of the bank’s Brady House branch in Mumbai.
Choksi and Modi fled India in January 2018, weeks before the scam in the PNB surfaced.
Last month, the Belgian foreign ministry confirmed to NDTV that Mehul Choksi was in the European country. In a communication, they said they were aware of his presence and “attached great importance and attention to it”.
The ministry, however, said they do not comment on individual cases. Even so, “the FPS Foreign Affairs continues to closely follow the developments in this important case”.
According to reports, Choksi has been living in Antwerp with his wife, Preeti Choksi, a citizen of Belgium, after obtaining a ‘residency card’ in the country.
A citizen of Antigua and Barbuda, he reportedly left the island nation for cancer treatment and was planning to move to Switzerland.
In 2021, he had gone missing from Antigua but was later found on another Caribbean island nation – Dominica.
In December 2024, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told parliament that properties worth Rs 2,565.90 crore had been restored or sold off to pay back the debts of wanted individuals like Choksi.
