Belgian court rejects Choksi bail petition

NEW DELHI: A Belgian court is learnt to have rejected the bail plea of fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi ahead of his extradition hearing there. Choksi, who was arrested in Belgium in April this year, had applied for bail on medical grounds last month.

Indian law enforcement agencies argued that Choksi was a habitual absconder and was likely to flee to another country if granted bail. The court accepted the argument and denied bond.

Choksi is wanted in bank fraud cases worth over Rs 13,900 crore. He has been in a Belgian jail for over four months now. Ahead of his extradition hearing scheduled in mid-Sept, the CBI has provided Belgian prosecutors voluminous evidence of his involvement in economic offences in India and details of his escape from US and Antigua in the past, besides the two open warrants against him. The Global Operations Centre of CBI is monitoring the developments in the case in direct coordination with foreign law enforcement agencies and Interpol channels. It has also hired the services of a local law firm to bolster the case.

In Jan 2018, Choksi had fled to the US and then to Antigua, whose citizenship he had obtained a year before. The CBI filed an FIR on complaint of bank fraud and started a probe. In 2021, he vanished from Antigua and surfaced in Dominica while trying to escape to Cuba on a boat. In 2022, five more cases were registered against him. He relocated to Belgium, for the second time, thereafter with his wife Preeti Choksi, who is a Belgian citizen, after securing an 'F Residency Card' there. Granted a residency in Belgium in Nov 2023, Choksi was arrested there on April 11 this year.