Mehul Choksi to stay in jail, Belgium court rejects bail request again
Fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi was arrested by Antwerp police on April 11, based on an extradition request sent by CBI.
New Delhi: In another setback to fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi, a court of appeal in Belgium has again rejected his bail plea, further extending his prison stay there, people familiar with the development said on Friday.
An officer who didn’t want to be named said Choksi had applied for bail again on August 22, offering to be put under surveillance while staying at home, which was heard by the Court of Appeal in Brussels on August 26.
“The court of appeal has dismissed Choksi’s bail plea ensuring that he remains in the prison in Antwerp,” said the officer.
Earlier, Choksi had approached the Court of Cassation in Belgium -- equivalent to the Supreme Court of India in July- which also refused to give him any relief.
Choksi, 65, was arrested by Antwerp police on April 11, based on an extradition request sent by CBI and has been lodged in the prison there for over four months now.
A second officer said Choksi is unlikely to get any relief anytime soon.
The fugitive businessman’s legal team could not be reached for a comment on the matter.
As reported by HT, a CBI team had last month travelled to Antwerp to provide additional information and evidence against Choksi and his companies and hire a European law firm to assist Belgian prosecutors during extradition proceedings which have been initiated under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 201 (destruction of evidence), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 477A (falsification of accounts), and sections 7 and 13 (bribery) of the Prevention of Corruption Act; which are crimes in Belgium as well under the dual criminality clause of extradition treaty.
The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) have also been invoked in the extradition request.
India has claimed before courts in Belgium that Choksi is a habitual offender and jumps extradition proceedings wherever he is found, as seen in the US and Antigua and Barbuda, and that if he is released on bail, he could easily cross over to another country in Europe.
Choksi is accused of defrauding Indian banks of ₹13,000 crore before fleeing from India in January 2018.
Indian investigators have submitted documentary evidence to the prosecutors in Belgium against Choksi in six bank frauds committed by him between 2018 and 2022 involving amounts totalling nearly ₹13,000 crore and court is already convinced that there is prima facie fear of him fleeing from Belgium.
He was tracked by CBI to Belgium in July last year after which it approached the Belgian government with a formal extradition request.
