Court Rejects Mehul Choksi's Plea To Drop Fugitive Economic Offender Tag

In a setback to diamantaire Mehul Choksi, a prime accused in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, a special court here on Friday rejected his application seeking to drop the proceedings declaring him a Fugitive Economic Offender (FEO).

Following his arrest in Belgium in April this year, Choksi had moved the plea before the special court hearing cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to dismiss the Enforcement Directorate (ED)'s application to declare him an FEO.

Choksi had pleaded that he is currently in custody for cases pending in India, for which an extradition request was made by the Indian authorities in Belgium.

Therefore, the application filed by the ED to declare him an FEO deserves to be dismissed as he is already in custody for cases in India.

The ED had opposed his plea saying the 66-year-old does not want to return to India as he is fighting extradition proceedings initiated against him in Belgium.

The probe agency argued that the FEO proceedings terminate only when an accused on the run appears, so it cannot be terminated now.

It stressed that there are no merits in the application and it deserves to be dismissed.

Under the FEO Act, a person can be declared an FEO if a warrant has been issued against him for an offence involving an amount of Rs 100 crore or more and he has left the country and refuses to return. Once the accused is declared an FEO, the probe agency can confiscate his property.

On October 17, a Belgium court upheld India's request for extradition of the diamond trader. He, however, challenged the order in the country's Supreme Court.

Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi are prime accused in the multi-crore scam being probed by both the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the ED.

They are accused of allegedly siphoning off over Rs 13,000 crore of public money from the PNB using LoUs and foreign letters of credit (FLCs) by bribing officials of the bank's Brady House branch in Mumbai.

While Choksi is facing the extradition proceedings, Nirav Modi is lodged in London jail. 

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