New Delhi: The extradition proceeding against absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi, wanted in the Rs 13,000 crore Punjab National Bank fraud case, is likely to commence in a Belgian court next Monday, officials said.
The court hearings will be led by Belgian federal prosecutors, with support from the CBI and India’s Ministry of External Affairs.
Choksi is understood to have held residency in Belgium since 2023, having relocated to the European country from Antigua and Barbuda for medical treatment, officials said, adding that his wife is a Belgian national.
The CBI had received information of his presence in Belgium in January 2024, following which an extradition request was dispatched to the European country with which India had signed a treaty in 2020, making it the first case under the arrangement, they said.
Based on India’s request, Choksi was arrested in April this year. His subsequent requests for bail have been denied by various courts in that country.
The CBI has also engaged a European law firm specialising in extradition law to help in the case. A team of CBI officials will also be present to provide any necessary inputs, documentation, or perspectives.
The agency has given a plethora of documents — chargesheets, FIRs and evidence summaries against him — to Belgian authorities showing that the charges he attracts in India are also punishable in that European country, a case of dual criminality that makes it a fit case for extradition under the treaty.
Choksi is facing cases under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections related to criminal conspiracy, cheating, and falsification of accounts, as well as provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, which constitute crimes in Belgium as well.
The central agency has also invoked the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (UNTOC) and the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in its extradition request.
At least two open-ended arrest warrants, issued by a special court in Mumbai in 2018 and 2021, have been shared by Indian agencies with their Belgian counterparts as part of the extradition request, the sources said.
Among other arguments for Choksi’s extradition to India is that he remains its citizen, despite having adopted the nationality of Antigua and Barbuda in 2017, because he did not complete the mandatory process to renounce his original citizenship, officials said.
He left India on January 4, 2018, days before the PNB scam became public.
His citizenship by investment in Antigua and Barbuda was cleared in November 2017. But the government there, under Prime Minister Gaston Browne, reportedly revoked it. He had challenged the decision in court, where the matter remains pending.
India has also provided an exhaustive assurance to Belgium about prison conditions and details of the facilities that would be extended during his imprisonment in the Arthur Road Prison in Mumbai to rule out any apprehensions of custodial torture, inhuman conditions or human rights violations during his incarceration.
