Fugitive economic offender, Mehul Choksi is left with no permanent citizenship except that of India. A letter, accessed by CNN-News18, written by Dominica’s Internal Security Minister Rayburn Blackmoore to Choksi says he was declared a prohibited immigrant.
This comes after Antigua had declared that he is not their citizen. This is in contrast to the claim by his lawyer that Choksi did not enter Dominica illegally and the police there cannot arrest him as he is not a “prohibited immigrant”.
According to the letter, he was declared a prohibited immigrant on May 25.
The ministry also sent a separate notice to Choksi on the same day, informing the businessman that he is “not permitted to enter Dominica”.
Earlier this week, Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit had referred to Choksi as an Indian citizen. He said the matter related to the economic offender’s illegal entry into the island country is before the court which will decide the next course of action.
The 62-year-old businessman is currently facing a court case in Dominica for illegally entering the island country from Antigua, where he had been living as a citizen since 2018. He is being treated at a hospital in Dominica after the court has adjourned the matter to June 14.
“The matter of this Indian citizen (Mehul Choksi) is before the court. The court will decide what happens to the gentleman,” he said in a press statement. However, the Prime Minister added that Choksi’s “rights will be respected as has been done thus far”.
Choksi had mysteriously gone missing on May 23 from Antigua and Barbuda, where he has been staying since 2018 after he fled Delhi. He was detained later in the neighbouring island country Dominica for illegal entry. His lawyers alleged that he was kidnapped from Jolly Harbour in Antigua by policemen and then brought to Dominica on a boat.
Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi had fled India in the first week of January 2018, weeks before a multi-crore scam in the Punjab National Bank rocked the Indian banking industry. The duo allegedly bribed officials of the state-run bank to get Letters of Undertaking (LoU) based on which they availed loans from overseas banks that remained unpaid.
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