Mehul Choksi fails to attend trial because of decline in health

The trial of the alleged Indian fraudster and Antiguan citizen, Mehul Choksi, was expected to begin on Monday in Roseau Magistrate's Court; however, due to a decline in his health, it has been postponed until June 25, 2021.

The 62-year-old wanted by Indian judicial authorities for defrauding the Punjab National Bank of nearly $ 2 billion, India's largest bank fraud in decades, pleaded not guilty to illegal entry into Dominica.

According to the police charges, on May 24, 2021, Choksi illegally entered Dominica through Toucari Beach. However, his lawyers claim that he was abducted from Antigua, beaten and reluctantly brought to Dominica.

During the trial today, two of Dominica's leading criminal lawyers were added to the Choksi case. Zena Moore-Dyer and her daughter Gina Dyer-Munro joined Julien Prevost, Wayne Norde and Cara Shillingford-Marsh.

The lawyers submitted a medical document to the court stating that Choksi was unfit and that he was, therefore, unable to attend the trial.

The prosecution team also added the addition of Harpreet Singh Giani, an Indian-born lawyer in London, England, who said he was appearing as a consultant for the prosecutor on the matter.

The State case is being led by Acting Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Sherma Dalrymple, with the help of attorneys Lennox Lawrence, Jodie Luke and Heather Felix Evans.

Choksi is kept by police at Dominica China Friendship Hospital (DCFH), where he has been a patient since May 29, 2021. On June 11, a judge in the Supreme Court denied the alleged fugitive bail on the grounds that he was a 'flight risk'.