Indian jeweller Meghul Choksi, who had been a fugitive from justice for a long time, has been arrested in Belgium. The businessman’s lawyer told Reuters that Choksi plans to appeal against his detention, citing his poor health – in particular, treatment for cancer – and the absence of a risk of escape.
The detention comes seven years after Choksi’s name first appeared in reports of one of the largest banking frauds in Indian history. According to Indian investigators, Choksi, along with his nephew, also a billionaire jeweller, Nirav Modi, were involved in a fraud worth more than $1.8 billion discovered at a branch of the state-owned Punjab National Bank in Mumbai in 2018.
The Indian police have already filed formal charges against both businessmen and several others. According to the investigation, they organised a scheme of fictitious loan transactions that caused multibillion-dollar losses to the bank. Both suspects categorically deny any wrongdoing.
Back in 2018, after the scam was exposed, Choksi disappeared from the law enforcement agencies’ radar. According to Reuters sources in the Economic Crime Investigation Directorate of India, it was during this period that he could have fled to Antwerp, Belgium, one of the largest diamond processing centres in the world, where Choksi had long-standing ties and frequent visits before the investigation began.
In a letter dated 2018, Choksi claimed that Indian law enforcement officials were “biased” against him and “interfering with the judicial process”. His lawyer, Vijay Aggarwal, today stressed that his client had not committed any crimes in Belgium.
Nirav Modi, another person involved in the case, is currently in custody in the UK. He fled India in 2018, shortly before the scandal was officially disclosed, and was arrested in London in 2019. After losing his first appeal against extradition, he is still awaiting a final decision from the British justice system.
It is said in Mumbai trade circles that Choksi deliberately chose Antwerp as a refuge: the city is not only close to him professionally, but also provides a certain level of social support in the diamond industry.
