PNB loan fraud: Mehul Choksi suspected to be suffering from cancer, undergoing treatment in Belgium, says lawyer

The special court has been hearing a plea by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking to declare Choksi as a Fugitive Economic Offender (FEO).

As per prosecution, the multi-crore fraud was allegedly perpetrated by billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali Gems. The two have been accused of acquiring letters of undertaking (LoU) and foreign letters of credit (FLC) based on fraudulent claims of Rs 12,636 crore issued in favour of foreign branches of Indian banks.

Nirav Modi was declared an FEO by a special court in December 2019 and the extradition process against him is underway.

In 2019, the ED moved an application before the special PMLA court to declare Choksi an FEO under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, and had sought to confiscate his properties. As per the 2018 Act, a person can be declared FEO if a warrant has been issued against him/her for an offence involving an amount of Rs 100 crore or more and if the person has left the country and refuses to return.

In September, 2023, the Bombay High Court single-judge bench of Justice Sarang V Kotwal had dismissed pleas by Choksi, who had challenged the application of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) pending before the special court to declare him as FEO.

Aggarwal had then told HC that his client was not refusing to return to India but was being prevented from doing so due to his medical condition. He had referred to the July 2021 order of Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, High Court of Justice at Commonwealth of Dominica, which granted him bail to travel to Antigua and Barbuda for specialised medical treatment for neurological ailments.