Antigua PM Mehul Choksi could be extradited to India

Absconding diamond merchant Mehul Choksis citizenship of Antigua may be revoked by the Caribbean country and he could be extradited to India after he exhausts all legal options Prime Minister Gaston Browne was quoted as saying by a media reportChoksi 60 had taken the nationality of Antigua and Barbuda in November 2017 using Citizenship by Investment Program CIP of the twinisland nation He fled India in the first week of January last year days before scam worth Rs 13400 crore was detected and reported by staterun Punjab National Bank PNBChoksi promoter of Gitanjali Gems and his nephew Nirav Modi who is currently in a London jail are wanted by the Enforcement Directorate ED and the CBI for allegedly masterminding the biggest banking fraud of IndiaPrime Minister Browne said the citizenship of the billionaire diamond trader will be revoked by the Caribbean country after he exhausts all his legal optionsHis Choksi citizenship was processed he got through but the reality is his citizenship will be revoked and he will be repatriated to India so there is recourse Its not a case that we are trying to provide any safe harbour for criminals for those who are involved in financial crimes he was quoted as saying by the Antigua Observer MondayWe have to allow for due process He has a matter before the court and as we said to the Indian Government criminals have fundamental rights too and Choksi has a right to go to court and defend his position But I can assure you after he has exhausted all of his legal options he will be extradited he saidUnder the CIP a person can take Antigua Barbuda passport on a minimum investment of USD 100000 in the NDF investment fund in that country Sources in New Delhi on Tuesday said We continue to remain engaged with the Antigua and Barbuda authorities over the issue of Choksis extraditionThe CBI has managed to get a Red Corner Notice against Modi but its application to get a similar notice from Interpol against Choksi has met a deadlock at the Lyonbased international police cooperation group The ED recently told the Bombay High Court that it was ready to provide an air ambulance to bring Choksi to IndiaChoksi currently based in the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda told the high court that he left India for medical treatment and not to avoid prosecution in the case He said he would return to India as soon as he is medically fit to travelHe had escaped the country on January 4 last year on an Indian passport and took the oath of allegiance in Antigua on January 15 they said Choksi allegedly swindled Rs 708086 crore while remaining was siphoned off by his nephew Modi making it possibly the biggest banking scam in the countryThey managed to orchestrate the scam by availing credit from overseas branches of Indian banks on the basis of fraudulent guarantees in the form of Letter of Undertakings and letters of credit issued by PNB Brady House branch in MumbaiThe LoU instructions were issued by colluding bank employees using an international banking messaging system but these were not entered in the internal PNB system making them impossible to be monitoredAn LoU is a guarantee given by an issuing bank to Indian banks having branches abroad to grant shortterm credit to the applicant The nonrepayment of these credits brought the liability on the PNB the officials saidOn trade issues between India and USA ahead of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeos visit Jaishankar said There will be talks on trade issues definitely We have our interests and the US have their own sometimes they converge and sometimes they dont Diplomacy is about finding common ground on these interestsLast year PM Narendra Modi met Chinas President Xi Jinping in Wuhan and had a good round of talks Its expected that Jinping will visit India this year After last years meeting there has been more stability in our relations I will visit China myself but the dates have not been decided yet he further addedTop news stories of the daySex toys worth Rs 8 crore confiscated in two years in MumbaiIn the worlds second populous nation the obsession with sex toys shouldnt come as a surprise What however does is the massive quantity of it being illegally brought into the country The toys are regularly detained by the Customs Department A Right To Information query filed by activist Prithviraj Maske revealed that from 2017 to January 2019 the Airport Special Courier Cell of the Mumbai Customs Department had seized sex toys worth Rs 8 crore Read full storyMurder Mystery Solved 3D face helps cops crack caseThe forensic department of the KEM Hospital has helped the Navghar police crack a twomonthold murder case with the help of facial reconstruction and 3D superimposition technology which they used to put a face on the victims severely fractured skull Yogesh Rane a worker at a tea stall in Mulund had in March smashed the face of his colleague Vijay Kishor and burnt his upper body for laughing at him at the gym He was caught after he attempted to kill another coworker when the latter started asking him questions about Kishors sudden disappearance Read full storyMumbai Corporators oppose parking fines say additionl infra requiredThe Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations BMC decision to tackle the citys illegal parking menace has fallen flat with corporators opposing the move of charging hefty fines without providing the required infrastructure or additional parking space to citizens Not only members of the ruling coalition even the Opposition opposed the move at the civic bodys general body meeting on Monday Read full storyMumbais top cop pedals to 1500 km cycling historyIndian Police Service IPS Krishna Prakash special inspector general of police IGP administration Maharashtra is back home in Mumbai after creating cycling history The tough cop has finished a stupendous fourth in the mens open category of the Race Across West RAW in USA The race which requires cycling for approximately 1500 km across four American states started on June 11 and ended on June 14 Read full storyBandra court asks police to probe case of school that blamed child for bad touchThe Bandra Court has directed the Santacruz police to register an offence against a reputed school in Vile Parle after a petitioner parent alleged mental harassment of her child by it Last year the eightyearold child was reprimanded for inappropriately touching his classmates by the school The parents later complained that the way the school treated the child thereon was harassment Read full storyEdited by midday online desk with inputs from ANICatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates