Mehul Choksi, a rich diamond supplier whom India has sought in reference to a fraud case involving one in all India’s largest state-run banks, has been arrested in Belgium, his lawyer stated on Monday.
Mr. Choksi, 65, is needed on expenses regarding an try to defraud the publicly owned Punjab Nationwide Financial institution of almost $1.8 billion in a case that induced a national scandal when it turned public in 2018.
Mr. Choksi left India shortly earlier than the authorities there went public with the accusations in opposition to him that yr. He has been residing within the Caribbean and in Belgium since then, in accordance with the Indian information media.
Law enforcement officials within the Belgian metropolis of Antwerp, a middle of the worldwide diamond commerce, arrested Mr. Choksi on Saturday, in accordance with the Belgian public prosecutor’s workplace, which stated it had requested the arrest.
The Belgian authorities didn’t instantly present particulars of the circumstances that led to Mr. Choksi’s arrest, however his lawyer, Vijay Aggarwal, stated in an interview that India’s Central Bureau of Investigation, the principle authorities investigative company, had requested for Mr. Choksi’s extradition.
Mr. Aggarwal stated that he would search his shopper’s speedy launch, arguing that he was in unwell well being and present process therapy for most cancers.
“He isn’t a flight threat,” Mr. Aggarwal advised a information convention in Delhi. “His medical situation may be very precarious.”
Mr. Aggarwal has denied accusations of wrongdoing within the case. Since leaving India, he has additionally frolicked in Dominica and Antigua, two international locations within the Caribbean, in accordance with the Indian information media.
Mr. Choksi’s nephew Nirav Modi, as soon as one in all India’s most distinguished high-end jewelers, was arrested in London in 2019 in reference to the financial institution fraud. Mr. Modi, who has additionally denied wrongdoing, had fled India weeks earlier than officers there accused him, Mr. Choksi and others within the fraud case. Mr. Modi has fought Indian efforts to have him extradited, and stays jailed in Britain.
The case in opposition to Mr. Choksi and Mr. Modi strengthened a notion in India that taxpayer-owned banks had been financing the lavish life of a rising elite. Makes an attempt to convey the 2 to justice have captivated the Indian public.
Jeanna Smialek contributed reporting from Brussels and Mike Ives from Seoul, South Korea.
