Absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi has sued the Antigua and Barbuda government over its foreign ministry examining a plea by Indian authorities requesting his extradition. A letter dated November 7 from the office of Deputy Solicitor General to the Prime Minister's office, shows Choksi has named the Minister Responsible for Citizenship and Minister Responsible for External Affairs of the Antigua and Barbuda government. The letter asks named parties to be present in the court for hearing in the lawsuit, or send the Permanent Secretary within their ministries.
India has been making steady efforts to extradite Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi, both wanted in the £1.4 billion scam at the Punjab National Bank. A statement by India's Ministry of External Affairs last month reveals the Antigua and Barbuda authorities are presently looking into extradition plea for Choksi submitted by Indian probe agencies.
Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) will question arrested businessman Deepak Kulkarni on diamond merchant Choksi's financial transaction in offshore companies. Choksi's trusted associate, he allegedly handled all illegal activities, including the manipulation of letters of undertaking, and managed Choksi's transactions from Hong Kong. The ED arrested him last week when he arrived at Kolkata airport from Hong Kong. He was then brought to Mumbai where he will be produced before a local court.
The ED said its investigation in the £610 million money laundering case against Choksi shows he diverted around £127 million to Shangyong Gong Si Ltd, one of the Gitanjali Group companies in Hong Kong in which Kulkarni was director, and handled the company's accounts. ED officials claimed Kulkarni was part of a criminal conspiracy and assisted in the circular transaction of goods for layering and receiving proceeds of crime. Kulkarni was supposed to fly on to Nagpur when he was detained at the airport by immigration officials.
His lawyer Shamsher Ali said in a Kolkata court that the ED had filed the chargesheet in June while the lookout notice has been issued on March 3 this year. He said, “Kulkarni had been in Hong Kong from December 2017 to November 4, 2018. The summons was not sent to Hong Kong although the agencies knew he was not in the country.”
