Indian jeweller Mehul Choksi arrested in Belgium in £1.52bn bank fraud case

FUGITIVE Indian jeweller Mehul Choksi has been arrested in Belgium and will file an appeal for release, his lawyer told Reuters on Monday. Choksi is accused of involvement in one of India’s biggest bank fraud cases, which came to light seven years ago.

A source from India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) told Reuters that the Indian government had sent an extradition request for Choksi before the arrest.

Punjab National Bank (PNB), India’s second-largest state-run bank by assets, had said in 2018 that it discovered a fraud worth £1.36 billion at one of its branches in Mumbai.

The bank had lodged a criminal complaint with India’s federal investigative agency against several entities, including billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, who was then managing director of Gitanjali Gems. The complaint alleged that they defrauded PNB.

India’s federal police later filed fraud charges against Choksi, Modi and others, accusing them of involvement in fraudulent transactions that led to heavy losses for the bank.

Both Choksi and Modi have denied any wrongdoing.

In 2018, Choksi wrote a letter stating that "investigating agencies were acting with pre-determined minds and interfering with the course of justice."

Choksi's lawyer, Vijay Aggarwal, told Reuters on Monday, "An appeal will be filed for his release, on grounds that he is undergoing cancer treatment and is not a flight risk." He added that Choksi had not committed any offence in Belgium.

Nirav Modi left India in 2018 before his alleged involvement in the case was made public. He was arrested in the UK in 2019 and remains in custody there. He has lost one extradition appeal.

Modi grew up in Antwerp, Belgium’s diamond polishing hub. Choksi used to visit the city often, even before the alleged scam surfaced.

Diamond traders in Mumbai have said that Antwerp could be a familiar location for Choksi, as he has contacts in the area and connections to the diamond trade.

Last week, a Pakistani-born Canadian businessman accused of involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks was extradited to India by the United States, in the first such transfer in a terrorism case.

(With inputs from Reuters)