Antigua prime minister says India sent private jet to Dominica carrying Choksi deportation papers

INDIA has sent a private jet to Dominica along with documents related to the deportation of fugitive Indian businessman Mehul Choksi, Antigua and Barbuda prime minister Gaston Browne told a radio show in his country.

A Qatar Airways private jet landed at the Douglas-Charles airport in Dominica, according to a report by Antigua News Room. The news led to speculation about the deportation of Choksi who was detained in Dominica after going missing from Antigua and Barbuda on May 23.

Publicly available data showed the Qatar Executive flight A7CEE left the Delhi airport at 3.44 pm on May 28 and reached Dominica at 13.16 local time on the same day, via Madrid.

The Dominica High Court has restrained the removal of Choksi from the country and put a gag order on the developments till the matter is heard again on June 2.

The Indian businessman said that he did not flee from Antigua and Barbuda and claimed he was kidnapped from Jolly Harbour in the country by policemen looking like Antiguan and Indian officers and taken to Dominica.

Meanwhile, unverified pictures of Choksi have surfaced in Dominica showing him with red swollen eyes and bruises on his hands.

Some media reports claimed he was admitted to a hospital in Dominica after being tested negative for Covid-19.

Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi are wanted in a £1.32 billion loan fraud case related to the Punjab National Bank in India.

Indian police have filed fraud charges against the two and others in connection with their suspected involvement in fraudulent transactions that led to huge losses for India’s Punjab National Bank.

Modi, currently lodged in a London jail, is contesting his extradition to India after repeated denial of his bail by courts.

Choksi took citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda in 2017 using the Citizenship by Investment programme before fleeing India in the first week of January 2018. The scam came to light subsequently.