The central government and the Crime Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday joined the legal battle in  Dominica High Court to secure fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi‘s extradition to India, reported ANI.

“Mehul Choksi was the mastermind behind a series of companies and he conspired with officials of a bank to unauthorisedly raise credit by abusing bank procedures”, said CBI DIG

The ministry of external affairs and CBI have formulated a strategy to counter Choksi‘s argument in which the former will focus and try to establish his connection in the PNB fraud case, while the government will argue about his citizenship status.

Choksi’s lawyers had filed a habeas corpus petition calling his arrest illegal and alleging that he was abducted, tortured, and handed over to Dominica authority to deny him rights available to him in Antigua and Barbuda as a citizen. The CBI and MEA have sought to implead in the habeas corpus petition.

While arguing Choksi’s bail in Dominica, the CBI stated, “Mehul Choksi is an international fugitive who continues to evade law enforcement in India. If admitted to bail, Choksi is very likely to continue his evasion of law enforcement and of the Red Notice issued by Interpol.”

The agency also informed the court that the Indian Court had issued a Non-Bailable Warrant of Arrest on April 17, 2018 against Choksi. The warrant could not be executed as he had already fled from India.

“CBI made attempts to arrest Mehul Choksi during the course investigation, but his whereabouts were unknown, and he was not available in India.”

Earlier on Friday (local time), the Dominica High Court has denied bail to Choksi in the case of illegal entry into the island country after his mysterious disappearance from neighbouring Antigua and Barbuda.

Choksi, who is fugitive businessman Nirav Modi’s uncle, is wanted in India on charges of fraud in relation to Rs 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam. 

In 2018, PNB filed a complaint, alleging that two junior employees of its Mumbai’s Brady House branch, along with Modi and Choksi’s companies, issued fraudulent “letters of undertaking”. The fraudulent LoUs were reported to be worth Rs 2.8 billion at first but within three months, the scam ballooned to over Rs 11,000 crore.