Diamond businessman Mehul Choksi, accused in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam worth crores of rupees, has received a big blow from a special court in Mumbai. On Friday, the court rejected Choksi’s application in which he had sought to end the process of declaring himself a fugitive economic offender (FEO).
Choksi, who had fled the country during the fraud cases, is currently in the custody of Belgian police on the request of the Indian government. His lawyers – Vijay Aggarwal, Rahul Aggarwal and Jasmine Purani argued in the court that he is in custody, hence the process of declaring him an FEO cannot be continued by the ED.
Expressing strong objection, ED said that Choksi is fighting a legal battle against extradition in Belgium to avoid returning to India. The agency said that the FEO process stops only when the accused appears in person in the court, which Choksi has not done. The ED insisted that the application had no merit and should be rejected.
Shock from Belgium also
Choksi’s nephew Nirav Modi has already been declared FEO. Under the FEO Act, in any case involving more than Rs 100 crore, the court can declare an absconding accused as FEO. As soon as FEO is declared, his properties can be confiscated.
On October 17, a Belgian court had approved the request to extradite Choksi to India, but he has challenged this order in the Supreme Court there. Both CBI and ED are investigating Choksi and Nirav Modi in the Rs 13,000 crore PNB scam in which they are accused of siphoning foreign funds through LoUs and FLCs by bribing officials of Mumbai’s Brady House branch.
Nirav Modi is currently in London jail and is fighting a legal battle to avoid extradition. Special Judge A.V. Gujarati’s detailed order is yet to come.
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