Indian fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi was on Friday denied bail by the High Court in Dominica, citing him to be a flight risk, local media reported. Choksi was represented by Cara Shillingford-Marsh, Wayne Benjamin Marsh, Wayne Norde and Julien Prevost.
According to Antigua News Room, a news outlet in the Caribbean island, it said, "Choksi's application was denied on the basis that he is a flight risk, he has no ties to Dominica and the court cannot impose any conditions that will assure it that he wouldn't abscond."
The 62-year-old, who is wanted in India in connection with a massive bank fraud, will appear before court again on Monday on a charge of illegal entry into Dominica. Choksi denies the charge, and claims he was kidnapped and taken there by force.
The Indian diamantaire had gone missing from Antigua and Barbuda on May 23 sparking a massive manhunt. He was reportedly captured on May 26 in Dominica. He is being probed in India by the CBI and the ED in the Rs 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case.
He has got interim relief from immediate repatriation to India by the Dominican court.
According to investigative agency sources, the Indian government has filed two affidavits in the Dominica high court establishing Choksi as Indian citizen and the serious nature of the fraud he committed on PNB. India has also submitted detailed evidence in the affidavits.
Antigua Cabinet discusses abduction claim
Meanwhile, the Antigua and Barbuda Cabinet held a brief discussion into Indian fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi's abduction claim, as well as on the decisions rendered by the Magistrate and the High Court of Dominica, local media reported.
"No new information has emanated from the Dominica authorities that now hold Choksi's fate in their hands. The authorities in Antigua continue their investigation of Choksi's claim that he was abducted in Antigua. Since abductions and kidnappings are not crimes usually reported in Antigua, no effort is being spared to uncover all the facts in this supposed abduction," the Antigua News Room quoted a Cabinet note as saying following the discussion.
Choksi, who is currently facing charges of entering Dominica illegally, was "unlawfully renditioned" from Antigua and Barbuda to Dominica so that he would no longer have the option of appealing to the UK Privy Council, his lawyer contended on Thursday.
Michael Polak, part of the legal team representing Choksi and an expert in providing legal assistance to foreign nationals around the world, told a virtual news conference that the team has also filed a complaint with the War Crimes Unit of the UK's Metropolitan Police on the ground that the Indian fugitive businessman was tortured.
Describing the case as one of "egregious breach of the rule of law and fundamental fairness", Polak said: "What happened to Choksi has been terrible. He was lured into a property, kidnapped, a bag placed over his head, beaten, forced onto a boat, and unlawfully renditioned into another country...In Antigua, he has the right to appeal to the Privy Council in London to determine whether the government is acting properly against him. In Dominica, he does not have such protection. The motive behind the kidnapping could not be clearer."
He further said there was sufficient evidence Barbara Jarabica and the other men involved in the incident had carried out a "reconnaissance or a failed attempt to kidnap" Choksi in April this year, adding that the fugitive businessman should be returned to Antigua. He had taken the citizenship of Antigua in 2017 and left India on January 4, 2018 days before the case came to light.
