Belgian court rejects Mehul Choksi’s bail plea, says his lawyer

New Delhi: A Belgian court on Tuesday rejected the bail plea of Mehul Choksi, the diamond merchant who is a prime accused in the Rs 13,000-crore PNB fraud case, his lawyer said.

The diamantaire was arrested in Antwerp by the Belgian police on April 12 based on an extradition request moved by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

His lawyer Vijay Aggarwal said the bail plea of his client has been rejected during a court hearing on Tuesday.

Choksi will contest his extradition from jail custody now, a senior official said.

Choksi, 65, was located in Belgium last year after he reached there sometime in November 2023 on the grounds of getting medical treatment.

He had been staying in Antigua after leaving India in 2018 and had taken citizenship of the Caribbean country even though his Indian citizenship is stated to be valid.

At least two open-ended arrest warrants, issued by a special court in Mumbai in 2018 and 2021, have been shared by the Indian agencies with their Belgian counterparts as part of the extradition request, official sources had said earlier.

Aggarwal had earlier stated that Choksi was “extremely sick and undergoing treatment for cancer”.

Choksi, Nirav Modi, their family members and employees, bank officials and others were booked by the CBI and the ED in 2018 for perpetrating the alleged loan fraud at the Brady House branch of the Punjab National Bank (PNB) in Mumbai.

It was alleged that Choksi, his firm Gitanjali Gems and others “committed the offence of cheating against PNB in connivance with certain bank officials by fraudulently getting the LOUs (letters of undertaking) issued and got the FLCs (foreign letter of credit) enhanced without following prescribed procedure and caused a wrongful loss to the bank”.

The CBI has filed at least two chargesheets against him in this case while the ED has filed three prosecution complaints.