Fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi, who mysteriously went missing from Antigua and Barbuda on Sunday evening, was apprehended by authorities in Dominica, located about 101 nautical miles from Antigua, according to reports in local media there.
A report in dominicannewsonline.com stated that Indian-born Choksi was in the custody of the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) in Dominica after he was caught on Tuesday night on the basis of an Interpol ‘yellow notice’.
It added that arrangements were being made to hand him over to the Antigua police.
Officials in Indian agencies said they are in touch with authorities in both the Caribbean countries to ascertain more details but it appears that he was trying to flee somewhere else.
“He may have taken a private boat to flee to Dominica. We are gathering more details,” said an officer.
His lawyer, Vijay Aggarwal said – “I have spoken to his family, his family is happy and relieved that finally whereabouts of Mehul Choksi are known. And efforts are being made to speak to him so that one can know the clearer picture that how he was taken to Dominica”.
On Tuesday, Antiguan Prime Minister Gaston Browne had said that if Mehul Choksi had fled the country, he would have done so using a boat.
The Antiguan government has said on several occasions that it is ready to extradite Choksi to India for which the process is already going on.
His extradition case as well as revocation of citizenship by Antigua is currently being pursued in a court there, which he has challenged.
Choksi, who has sought refuge in Antigua after allegedly cheating the Punjab National Bank of ₹13,578 crore along with his nephew Nirav Modi, and fleeing India in 2018, left his home on Sunday to go for dinner at a well-known restaurant in the southern part of the island and was never seen again.
