Fugitive diamond trader Mehul Choksi – one of India’s most wanted in connection with the Punjab National Bank loan fraud case – is currently in Belgium, the European nation has confirmed to NDTV. In a communication, the Belgian foreign ministry confirmed that they are aware of his presence and “attaches great importance and attention to it”.
Belgium, 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”.
Indian authorities have contacted their Belgian counterparts to start the process of Mr Choksi’s extradition, news website Associate Times had reported.
His nephew Nirav Modi, co-accused in the same case, is awaiting extradition from London.
Choksi, 65, wanted for his alleged involvement in Rs 13,500-crore loan fraud in Punjab National Bank along with Nirav Modi, has been living in Antwerp with his wife Preeti Choksi, a Belgian citizen.
Unconfirmed reports had said they acquired an ‘F Residency Card’.
Choksi had left Antigua and Barbuda for medical treatment though he remains a citizen of the island nation.
His absence made headlines after the Caribbean nation’s Foreign Minister EP Chet Greene revealed it when he was in India to participate in the Raisina Dialogue, India’s annual conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics,.
Without revealing where Mehul Choksi had gone, Mr Greene said he had left for medical treatment.
Mehul Choksi and his nephew, celebrity jeweller Nirav Modi, had skipped India in January 2018, weeks before the scam in PNB – the country’s second largest bank, surfaced.
Later, it became known that he had taken citizenship of Antigua two months before the scam surfaced.
In 2021, he was captured from Dominica while trying to flee to Cuba.
Mehul Choksi has claimed that the cases against him are a result of political conspiracy, and his properties in India were illegally attached by the Enforcement Directorate.