Fact Check: Mehul Choksi's travel from Antigua to Dominica

Dominica: New stories have been coming out ever since Indian fugitive Mehul Choksi arrived in Dominica. Some reports say he was abducted, and some say he reached the island with his alleged girlfriend. But, the reality is still a mystery that is being investigated by Antiguan and Dominican authorities.

As per the missing report filed by Mehul Choksi's house members from Jolly Harbour Antigua and Barbuda, he went missing on May 23, 2021, at around 5 pm. He was last seen at his residence by his staff members on the same day before he went missing. Some reports surfaced in the media, indicating that Choksi reached Dominica on May 23 and not on May 25. Lennox Linton- Leader of Opposition in Dominica, alleged that Calliope of Arne yacht was utilized to move Mehul Choksi from Antigua to Dominica; however, the customs clearance document shows that the ship sailed from Antigua to Dominica at 10:09 am on May 23, 2021, for Dominica while he went missing at around 5 pm on the same day. [caption id="attachment_35100" align="alignnone" width="1135"] Boat departures to Dominica on May 23 at 10:00 am[/caption]

It cannot be the same boat that Mehul Choksi took to enter Dominica as there is a massive difference of timings representing that the ship had left at 10 am while Mehul Choksi went missing at 5 pm. The seaways distance between both island countries is around 120 miles, and it takes 10 to 11 hours to cover the distance via sea at the speed of 14.1 knots.

[caption id="attachment_3819" align="alignleft" width="202"] Lennox Linton.[/caption]

In a rush to gain media attention, Lennox Linton misunderstood the custom clearance certificate and portrayed the timings as 10:00 pm instead of the actual 10:09 am. To make it more clear, the document also shows that the Calliope of Arne arrived at English Harbour on May 17 at 15:33 (3:33 pm). The time frame in the clearance form showed the 24-hour format.

Yacht experts in Antigua said that it is nearly impossible to leave Antigua at 7 or 8 pm and reach Port of Portsmouth, Dominica, on the same date, which the opposition leader is claiming.

Lennox Linton maintains that Mehul Choksi entered Dominica on the same day he went missing. However, the claim is not going with the time difference because Choksi was at his residence till 5 pm as per his staff.

Professional yacht services executive John Moore stated that it is not unusual that the ships are sailing between different Caribbean islands; he termed the process a regular schedule of the journey, which sometimes increases during the peak tourism season.

After the arrest of Mehul Choksi, his family hired the topmost lawyers from the United Kingdom, India, Antigua and Barbuda, and Dominica. The legal fleet of lawyers would be paid a massive amount of money to fasten up the release process and take Mehul Choksi back to Antigua and Barbuda, where he is a citizen.

On June 02 hearing, apart from the top lawyers from the UK, there will be a local team for Mehul Choksi from Dominica as well. The local lawyers include names like Julien Prevost, Wayne Marsh, Wayne Norde and Cara Shillingford-Marsh.

[caption id="attachment_35098" align="alignnone" width="947"] Dominican Lawyers of Mehul Choksi: Julien Prevost, Wayne Marsh, Wayne Norde and Cara Shillingford-Marsh
Photo - Dominica News Online[/caption]

Since Mehul Choksi and his family have no real financial resorts, they would be utilizing the money that he defrauded from the state-owned Indian bank. The money that lawyers are going to get is actually the money belonging to the people of India, as primary spenders include his family and his cousin Chetan Chinu Bhai Choksi (also a bank defaulter). According to the Times of India, Chetan Choksi defrauded $25M from ICIC bank's UK subsidiary operating under the Antwerp branch.

In usual matters when high profile individuals are involved in a lawsuit, it is the responsibility of lawyers to check the source of funds and verify if those funds are not illegally generated.

Following the arrest of Mehul Choksi, his cousin Chetan reached Dominica on May 29, 2021, to provide support and remained under quarantine till the morning of May 30.

[caption id="attachment_35097" align="alignnone" width="873"] Chetan Chinubhai Choksi's quarantine form[/caption]

After completing his quarantine, Chetan Choksi reached out to the opposition leader of Dominica in Marigot, where they both had a comprehensive meeting of about 2 hours and allegedly made arrangements of token money of $200,000 and election funding to raise the voice for Mehul Choksi in the parliament and media.

The grim game plan Choksi and his people are playing is raising eyebrows. What was the necessity of meeting the Leader of Opposition, if the family believed that he was abducted from Antigua. Another theory also suggests that he might be planning to leave Dominica soon as he was scheduled to reach Cuba in the second safe house. Speculations apart from the abduction story, there are also talks of him sailing off to Cuba for safer place as the government of Antigua and Barbuda was peddling towards his extradition.

Why is Mehul Choksi a fugitive?  The Indian judicial authorities want Mehul Chinubhai Choksi, popularly known as Mehul Choksi, for unlawful conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, deception, and fraud, including property, corruption, and money laundering.

In March 2018, a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act(PMLA), 2002 court released resulted in non-bailable detention warrants (NBWs) against Choksi and his nephews Nirav Modi. They are suspected of conspiring with two employees of Punjab National Bank (PNB), the country's second-biggest government-owned lender, in a suspected $1.8 billion fraud.

Choksi is a fugitive of the Indian government; he demonstrated his innocence in an open letter. On March 6 2018, the CBI arrested Vipul Chitalia, the Vice-President of Gitanjali Group of Companies and a close assistant of Choksi. Chitalia was captured at Mumbai airport and kept in custody till March 2018.

A political dementia

After Mehul Choksi went missing from Antigua and Barbuda and then got arrested in Dominica, the temperature of the political atmosphere of the countries increased rapidly. While the Antiguan Prime Minister said that the country does not want Mehul Choksi and wants him extradited to India, the opposition United Progressive Party (UPP) showed their support to Choksi. Similarly, the opposition of Dominica is now on its toes to make the best possible mileage of the issue.

The oppositions of the two countries are endeavouring to get their future election funding secured; even though Choksi is a fugitive, he is still worth a lot of money that could single-handled assist these parties in achieving their desired election campaigning goals.