Dominican opposition leader, Lennox Linton, has slammed the government of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit over not being forthcoming on the issue of Mehul Choksi, accusing that the government already knew about Choksi’s arrival in the country. Choksi arrived in Dominica without any passport and huge question marks how he entered the Dominican soil, Linton said.
Speaking to a local media channel, Linton said, the only reason that government is keeping it under wraps, not wanting that people should know about it is because the government is embarrassed by the action it took to facilitate this transaction.
However, days after fugitive jeweller Mehul Choksi was arrested in Dominiaca, photos of him in the police custody have been surfaced. A local media accessed his photos on Saturday shortly after a court in the Caribbean island nation extended its order of restraining his deportation till Wednesday.
Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne had requested Dominican PM Roosevelt Skerrit and law enforcement in Dominica to not return Choksi to Antigua where he enjoys legal and constitutional protection as a citizen, the news agency reported.
But, his repatriation process was stayed by a Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, superior court for eastern Caribbean states including Commonwealth of Dominica, as his lawyers had last week contested that the wanted businessman cannot be sent to India as he is no longer a citizen of the country. India’s most wanted fugitive in connection with the Punjab National Bank loan fraud case, was captured from Dominica while trying to flee to Cuba from Antigua.
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Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi are wanted in India for allegedly siphoning off Rs 13,500 crore of public money from the state-run Punjab National Bank, using fake guarantees to secure overseas loans.