PNB scam: India notifies Commonwealth extradition arrangement in Choksi''s case

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 6

In its ongoing pursuit of fugitive diamond merchant Mehul Choksi, India has now notified an extradition arrangement with Antigua and Barbuda under a Commonwealth membership framework.  

India does not have an existing bilateral extradition treaty with Antigua and Barbuda, which granted citizenship to Choksi in November 2017 under its Citizenship By Investment Program. An Antiguan passport allows Choksi, wanted along with his nephew Nirav Modi, another suspect in a nearly $2 billion scam, visa-free travel to some 132 countries. 

The Gazette of India on Monday published a Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) notification dated August 3 saying that provisions of Extradition Act, 1962, shall apply to Antigua and Barbuda as a Designated Commonwealth Country under provisions of its own Extradition Act, 1993. Incidentally, on August 3, an official Indian delegation led by Manpreet Vohra, Additional Secretary in charge of Consular Passport and Visa Division, handed over formal extradition request to Gaston Browne government in Antigua. MEA’s move also comes days after Antigua’s Attorney General Benjamin reportedly apprised his government that under statutory instrument no 34/2001 and Section 7 of Extradition Act 12/1993, there exists bilateral extradition arrangements his country and India. 

India is party to regional extradition treaties such as London Scheme (Commonwealth Scheme for the Rendition of Fugitive Offenders 1966).  This arrangement however doesn’t have the same status as treaties, in that is not binding. “The legal basis for Extradition with States with whom India does not have an Extradition Treaty ("non-Treaty States) is provided by Section 3(4) of the Indian Extradition Act, 1962, which says that the Central Government may, by notified order, treat any convention to which India and a foreign state are parties, as an Extradition Treaty made by India with that foreign state providing for extradition in respect of the offences specified in that Convention,” the government’s guidelines for Indian law enforcement agencies for extradition of fugitives says. 

Prime Minister Browne, while indicating his willingness to cooperate with India on the case, has also made it very clear that due process will be followed because he is now a citizen of his country. According to sources, India will have to prepare for a legal fight for Choksi’s extradition similar to one it is fighting in UK courts in relation to liquor baron Vijay Mallya.