India’s fugitive diamond businessman Mehul Choksi has been arrested in Belgium. He is charged with an alleged involvement in the Rs 12,636 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam.
What's the charge against Mehul Choksi?
The former Geetanjali Group chairman, Choksi and his nephew, Nirav Modi, are involved in one of India’s largest banking frauds, allegedly misappropriating Rs 13,500 crore of public money from the state-run Punjab National Bank using fraudulent letters of undertaking.
Mehul Choksi started Geetanjali Gems in 1986, which grew its retail chain to more than 4,000 stores and many of India's renowned jewellery brands, such as Gili, Asmi, Sangini, and D'damas.
Choksi took his business to an international level, signing a retail agreement with an American company called Samuel Jewellers, with over 100 stores in America.
Mehul Choksi claimed that he acquired assets of more than Rs 20,000 crore.
“When I left India, my total net worth was around Rs 20,000 crore,” he said. [Source: Business Standard]
As part of the investigation, Indian agencies have recovered assets worth over Rs 2,565 crore, including luxury properties in Mumbai, two industrial units in SEEPZ (Andheri), luxury jewellery, bank accounts, equity investments, and a Mercedes car.
The government has seized an additional Rs 14.45 crore of assets, which included flats in Goregaon and high-end jewellery.
A special court in Mumbai has ordered that Rs 125 crore of the seized amount be returned to the victims of the fraud.
However, most of Choksi's remaining assets are still pending before the court. So, the accurate value of his net worth is still not known.
The extradition process from Belgium is underway, and Indian legal and diplomatic authorities are working closely with their European counterparts to extradite Choksi to India to face prosecution.
Public interest remains high in this case, which has badly impacted India’s financial system.
Choksi, 65, had been eluding Indian authorities since early 2018. After Interpol revoked its Red Notice, to locate and provisionally arrest him in March 2023, agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) intensified efforts to trace and extradite him.
Earlier this year, Belgian authorities confirmed that Choksi and his wife, Preeti, had relocated to Belgium.
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