PNB scam: Mehul Choksi goes missing in Antigua, may have fled to Cuba

MUMBAI: There is a new twist to the Mehul Choksi saga as the fugitive businessman has reportedly gone missing from his Antigua shelter. Sources from Antigua and Barbuda have told TOI late on Monday night that Choksi may have fled to Cuba fearing extradition to India.



“That’s what I am hearing but I am yet to get a confirmation,” a highly placed source in the government told TOI. Local media quoted his close aide Govin as saying that Choksi has shifted base to Cuba. India does not have an extradition treaty with Cuba.
The Antigua and Barbuda has been seriously pursuing his extradition in the court of law and as recently as Monday the island’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne spoke to PM Narendra Modi.




The initial information from the Caribbean island was that the police launched a manhunt after he was rumoured to have become untraceable under suspicious circumstances. It later emerged that his empty vehicle was discovered near a noted restaurant in the southern part of the island. The 63-year-old businessman, apparently, went for dinner on Sunday night and was not seen since.
The vehicle was found in the famous Jolly Harbour area, leading to a search operation by the cops. Antigua newsroom website reported that he was seen by residents driving in the Jolly Harbour area on Sunday evening. Commissioner of Police Atlee Rodney was quoted in the local media as saying that the police are following up on the whereabouts of the Indian businessman. The police also sought help from the public to trace Choksi.



However, the government refused to indulge in speculation. “Nothing that I can report at this stage as the rumor mills are leading this story. I will report at such time as I have accurate information,” Antigua foreign minister Paul ‘Chet’ Greene told TOI, reacting to local media reports on Choksi going missing. The minister had been very vocal against Choksi in the past.
Choksi, wanted by the Indian authorities in the Rs 12,000 crore PNB scam, has been fighting extradition from the island in the Antigua courts. Choksi’s battery of lawyers has managed to stave off the efforts of the government to send him back to India. Choksi managed to get the Antigua citizenship under the ‘citizenship by investment programme’ of the island’s government.
He faces charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating and dishonesty, including delivery of property, corruption and money laundering. His nephew Nirav Modi is also in a similar situation in London, having to fight extradition from UK to India.