Choksi mysteriously disappeared from Antigua on Sunday evening when he had gone to a restaurant and was located in Dominica, another Caribbean island country 101 nautical miles from Antigua Antigua has asked Dominica to declare Mehul Choksi persona non grata and repatriate the fugitive to India, according to news agency ANI and reports in Antiguan media. The reports cite Antiguan Prime Minister Gaston Browne telling local media that he has asked Dominica to repatriate Choksi directly to India and that his country will not accept the fugitive back.
Choksi, who has sought refuge in Antigua after allegedly cheating Punjab National Bank of ₹13,578 crore along with his nephew Nirav Modi, and fleeing India in 2018, left his home on Sunday to go for dinner at a well-known restaurant in the southern part of the island and was never seen again. He was located in Dominica, another Caribbean island country 101 nautical miles from Antigua. He is currently in the custody of Criminal Investigation Department of Dominica, with whom Indian officials are coordinating, people familiar with the development said. Gaston Browne has said that he has requested Dominica PM Roosevelt Skerrit and the law enforcement agencies there not to return Choksi to Antigua, where he has legal and constitution protection as a citizen. “We have requested that he be detained and to make arrangements with Dominican government to have him returned to India,” Browne told ANI, while adding that “Choksi may not enjoy the same protection in Dominica”. He added that Choksi made a monumental error by skipping Antigua.
A senior official in India said, “We are in touch with authorities in Dominica to get him repatriated to India. He is not a citizen there so he can be deported quickly.” The police in Dominica apprehended him in the northern territory of the island on the basis of a yellow notice issued by Antigua after he went missing.
Comment here