Fugitive Indian businessman Mehul Choksi was recently arrested by the law enforcement agencies of Belgium and acted at the request of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). | Photocredit: Ani
Mehul Choksi, the businessman wanted to deal with Punjab National Bank (PNB) in India in India, the Indian government sues and five people in the Supreme Court in London as conspirators for his alleged “kidnapping, torture and attempted display”.
The Indian authorities have denied the allegations and objected to British jurisdiction on the basis of “state immunity” and have also requested permission for expert evidence on Indian legislation and the Indian constitution that must be taken into account.
During a hearing of the case management on Monday before Justice Freedman, the court was told that Choksi claims to have been tortured in May 2021 as part of a abducted attempt “orchestrated by the Indian government”.
“To avoid doubt, nothing is meant in these submissions to refrain whether to be interpreted as the abandonment of the state immunity of India,” the court was told by the Indian side this week.
Choksi was accused of “making extremely serious accusations against India, so that it has devised an international conspiracy to kidnap and harm it”.
“It is the position of India that the current claim is mainly pursued with the (miserable) intention to trying to embarrass India and to obtain leverage in the plaintiff’s international attempts to prevent extradition,” argued Barrister Harish Salve on behalf of the Indian authorities.
The lawyers of Choksi, led by lawyer Edward Fitzgerald, claim that there was a collusion between five people in the attack on him in Antigua to be brought to Dominica in the Caribbean with the aim of being “displayed” to India.
“The defendants have therefore entered into illegal means, conspiracy in which the defendants agreed and subsequently made unlawful and harmful actions to the plaintiff through abuse, battery, false prison sentence, illegal detention and/or illegal to freedom,” Choksi’s legal claim.
In the meantime, the businessman remains in custody in Belgium and fights his extradition to India. He is searched in India, together with his cousin, Nirav Modi, who stays behind bars in London after repeated attempts to bail have been refused by the English courts.
There are three sets of criminal procedures against NIRAV in India – the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case of fraud on PNB, the enforcement director (ED) with regard to the alleged money laundering of the proceeds of that fraud and a third set of criminal proof procedures.
In April 2021, the British house secretary Priti Patel ordered his extradition to face these charges in the Indian courts after a great Facie case was founded against him. But recent hearings in London have mentioned a “confidential” obstacle to his extradition, considered an asylum application.
Published on June 17, 2025
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