India sent private jet to Dominica with Choksi papers: Antiguan PM

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 30

Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne is learnt to have said during a radio show in his country that India had “sent a private jet to Dominica carrying documents related to the deportation of fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi”, wanted in a Rs 13,500-crore bank loan fraud case.

There was, however, no immediate official confirmation from the Indian authorities on the claims made by Browne.

The media firm, Antigua News Room, reported that a Qatar Airways private jet landed at the Douglas-Charles airport in Dominica, leading to speculations about deportation of Choksi, who was detained in the Caribbean island nation after his mysterious disappearance from neighbouring country Antigua and Barbuda.

The media firm further quoted Browne saying at the radio show that the jet came from India carrying necessary documentation needed for the deportation of the fugitive businessman.

Even the publicly available data of Qatar Executive flight A7CEE shows that it left the IGI Airport, Delhi, at 3.44 pm on May 28 and reached Dominica at 13.16 local time, the same day, via Madrid.

The Dominica High Court has stayed the removal of Choksi from its soil and put a gag order on the developments till the matter is heard in an open court on June 2.

Choksi has alleged that he was abducted from Jolly Harbour in Antigua and Barbuda by policemen looking like Antiguan and Indian and taken to Dominica. Pictures of Choksi (62), which have surfaced in Dominica, show him with a swollen eye and bruises on the hands.

Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi are wanted for allegedly siphoning Rs 13,500 crore of public money from the state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) using letters of undertaking. Both are being probed in the case by the CBI.