Screws on Mehul Choksi – Dominica court-ordered to be sent to jail – A court in Dominica ordered businessman Mehul Choksi to be sent to jail on Thursday, but he will continue to undergo hospital treatment as his health deteriorates. Choksi’s lawyer in India gave this information. Earlier, diamond merchant Choksi was in police custody.
Advocate Vijay Aggarwal said, “Police custody has been converted into jail custody, but he will remain in the hospital as his medical condition has deteriorated. ”
The development is being seen as a ray of hope for India which has approached the Dominica High Court to make it a party to the case filed by Choksi’s lawyers. Choksi’s bail plea has already been rejected.
Choksi is wanted in India in a case of nearly Rs 13,500 crore loan fraud from the government-run Punjab National Bank.
The CBI in its supplementary charge sheet has included Section 201 of the IPC along with other charges which pertain to destruction of evidence by the suspect under criminal conspiracy. Choksi, in criminal conspiracy with Punjab National Bank (PNB) Deputy Manager Gokulnath Shetty, withdrew all documents filed for issuance of 165 Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) and 58 Foreign Letters of Credit (LoUs) during March and April, 2017. FLC) was manipulated.
CBI alleges that Shetty had dishonestly and forgery returned all original applications along with other documents submitted by the accused companies Gitanjali Gems Ltd, Gilli India Ltd and Nakshatra Brand Ltd. The CBI alleged that these documents along with the application were recovered during raids on the premises hired by Mehul Choksi’s employee at the behest of Vipul Chunilal Chitalia. The agency had also recovered LoU and FLC records from Chitalia’s Google Drive during his custody. At the behest of Choksi, his employees were trying to cover up the scam, while Choksi was trying to escape from India to a safe place.
The CBI alleged that in 2017 Choksi had gone to Hong Kong where he met “fake” directors of the supplier companies. These fake directors were employees of Choksi’s companies. The supplier companies Shanyo Gong Si Limited, 4C Diamond Distributor and Crown Am Limited were the beneficiaries of the Rs 6,345 crore LoUs and LLCs issued by PNB. During his Hong Kong visit, Choksi asked the fake directors not to travel to India as they could face ED questioning over the Gitanjali group. Choksi had also asked directors of Hong Kong-based supplier companies to obtain visas to Thailand as Hong Kong businesses were about to close. In the supplementary charge sheet, the CBI said, “This shows that Choksi was aware of the impending criminal case. Therefore, Choksi fled from India on January 4, 2018 to evade the legal process. The CBI has filed a supplementary charge sheet almost three years after its first charge sheet.
